research-article

An intermediate representation for speculative optimizations in a dynamic compiler

Authors:

Gilles Duboscq,

Thomas Würthinger,

Christian Wimmer,

Hanspeter MössenböckAuthors Info & Claims

VMIL '13: Proceedings of the 7th ACM workshop on Virtual machines and intermediate languages

Pages 1 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/2542142.2542143

Published: 28 October 2013 Publication History

Abstract

We present a compiler intermediate representation (IR) that allows dynamic speculative optimizations for high-level languages. The IR is graph-based and contains nodes fixed to control flow as well as floating nodes. Side-effecting nodes include a framestate that maps values back to the original program. Guard nodes dynamically check assumptions and, on failure, deoptimize to the interpreter that continues execution. Guards implicitly use the framestate and program position of the last side-effecting node. Therefore, they can be represented as freely floating nodes in the IR. Exception edges are modeled as explicit control flow and are subject to full optimization. We use profiling and deoptimization to speculatively reduce the number of such edges. The IR is the core of a just-in-time compiler that is integrated with the Java HotSpot VM. We evaluate the design decisions of the IR using major Java benchmark suites.

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Freitag FHalder LHuber BKasper BNestler MPer KRaschhofer MRipar AZottele JKrall A(2025)OpenVADL: An Open Source Implementation of the Vienna Architecture Description LanguageArchitecture of Computing Systems10.1007/978-3-032-03281-2_11(156-171)Online publication date: 23-Oct-2025
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-03281-2_11
Burchell HMarr S(2025)Divining Profiler Accuracy: An Approach to Approximate Profiler Accuracy through Machine Code-Level SlowdownProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/37631809:OOPSLA2(3615-3641)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2025
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3763180
Basso MProkopec ARosà ABinder W(2025)Heap-Snapshot Matching and Ordering using CAHPs: A Context-Augmented Heap-Path Representation for Exact and Partial Path Matching using Prefix TreesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/37631039:OOPSLA2(1484-1511)Online publication date: 9-Oct-2025
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Index Terms

An intermediate representation for speculative optimizations in a dynamic compiler
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers
      1. Runtime environments

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