SHF: CSR: Small: Fine-Grained Modularity and Reuse of VM Components

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

Much of today's information infrastructure makes use of virtual machines (VMs). For example, consumer devices typically contain VMs for Java, JavaScript, and Flash. VMs are often well suited to roll out new capabilities to a broad range of target devices, which is why new VMs are being created all the time. Unfortunately, most VMs today are created from scratch, in spite of the fact that they are broadly similar. This is a considerable waste of programmer time and money. The goal of this project is to make creating VMs simpler, by creating a "toolbox" of components from which new VMs can be constructed easily. The technical challenge is to create building blocks that can be put together to work as well as the custom-crafted VMs of today. In many cases, VM performance is critical. For example, on mobile devices, a slower VM might force us to run the processor at a higher speed, leading to faster battery depletion. This research promises that one may one day be able to create a competitively performing VM for Java, JavaScript and Flash in which some parts are shared, so that the total size is much smaller than three separate VMs. This is important for resource-constrained devices such as mobile phones. Re-using components rather than reinventing the wheel each time would reduce the entry cost for new languages. Sharing components would also lead to pooling of debugging resources, reducing errors and thereby leading to a safer and more stable computing infrastructure.