Title
Comparing tag scheme variations using an abstract machine generator
Abstract
In this paper we study, in the context of a WAM-based abstract machine for Prolog, how variations in the encoding of type information in tagged words and in their associated basic operations impact performance and memory usage.We use a high-level language to specify encodings and the associated operations. An automatic generator constructs both the abstract machine using this encoding and the associated Prolog-to-bytecode compiler. Annotations in this language make it possible to impose constraints on the final representation of tagged words, such as the effectively addressable space (fixing, for example, the word size of the target processor / architecture), the layout of the tag and value bits inside the tagged word, and how the basic operations are implemented. We evaluate a large number of combinations of the different parameters in two scenarios: a) trying to obtain an optimal general-purpose abstract machine and b) automatically generating a specially-tuned abstract machine for a particular program. We conclude that we are able to automatically generate code featuring all the optimizations present in a hand-written, highly-optimized abstract machine and we can also obtain emulators with larger addressable space and better performance
Year
DOI
Venue
2008
10.1145/1389449.1389455
PPDP
Keywords
Field
DocType
basic operation,wam-based abstract machine,highly-optimized abstract machine,addressable space,optimal general-purpose abstract machine,tag scheme variation,associated operation,associated basic operations impact,abstract machine,better performance,specially-tuned abstract machine,abstract machine generator,processor architecture,performance,high level language,prolog
Architecture,Pointer machine,Programming language,Computer science,Theoretical computer science,Compiler,Prolog,Word (computer architecture),Abstract machine,Encoding (memory)
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
6
0.43
12
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
José F. Morales18811.95
Manuel Carro214619.95
Manuel V. Hermenegildo32692182.60