Title
Towards a multiple-ISA embedded system
Abstract
In these days, every new added hardware feature must not change the underlying Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), in order to avoid adaptation or recompilation of existing code. Binary translation (BT) allows the execution of already compiled applications on different architectures. Therefore, it opens new possibilities for designers, previously tied to a specific ISA and all its legacy hardware issues. To overcome the BT inherent performance penalty, we propose a new mechanism based on a dynamic two-level binary translation system. While the first level is responsible for the BT de facto to an intermediate machine language, the second level optimizes the already translated instructions to be executed on the target architecture. The system is totally flexible: it supports the porting of radically different ISAs and the employment of different target architectures. This paper presents the first effort towards this direction: it translates code implemented in the x86 ISA to MIPS assembly (the intermediate language), which will be optimized by the target architecture: a dynamically reconfigurable array. We show that it is possible to maintain binary compatibility, with performance improvements and no energy losses, when compared to native execution.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1016/j.sysarc.2012.10.001
Journal of Systems Architecture - Embedded Systems Design
Keywords
Field
DocType
different isas,bt inherent performance penalty,new mechanism,binary translation,multiple-isa embedded system,different architecture,binary compatibility,target architecture,dynamic two-level binary translation,different target architecture,new added hardware feature,code optimization
Program optimization,x86,Computer science,Instruction set,Parallel computing,Real-time computing,Machine code,Binary code compatibility,Binary translation,Porting,Legacy system,Embedded system
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
59
2
1383-7621
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
3
0.49
37
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jair Fajardo, Jr.130.49
Mateus Rutzig2788.14
Luigi Carro31393166.42
Antonio C. S. Beck4155.10