Optimization of Virtual Machines for Few-Core Systems
Research Context
The objective is to investigate the role that can be played by dual-core or quad-core processors in optimizing (conventional) virtual machines and programming language interpreters.
General Objectives
The goal of this thesis is to identify specific tasks performed inside a virtual machine that are available for execution in a separate thread on a separate core. Obvious candidates are memory management, cache management and the like; less obvious ones depend on the possible decomposition of the evaluation process. This thesis will require the student to refactor an existing virtual machine in such a way that running several truly parallel threads becomes possible. The idea is to evaluate the performance bonus/malus that is realized and to generalize the experiences gained into a guideline or even a framework for repeating the process for a different task that has a potential for parallelisation.
Research Training
Two existing virtual machine prototypes, one for Pico and one for Scheme, are offered as target platform. During the research training, you will become familiar with one or the other, and help stabilize it in the context of this assignment.
Requirements
- Interest in virtual machines and language implementations
- C programming experience.
