SOAR: Smalltalk Without Bytecodes

Abstract

We have implemented Smalltalk-80 on an instruction-level simulator for a RISC microcomputer called SOAR. Measurements suggest that even a conventional computer can provide high performance for Smalltalk-80 by: 1) abandoning the 'Smalltalk Virtual Machine' in favor of compiling Smalltalk directly to SOAR machine code; 2) linearizing the activation records on the machine stack; 3) eliminating the object table; and 4)replacing reference counting with a new technique called Generation Scavenging. In order to adopt these techniques, we had to find new ways to support hash objects, accessing well-known objects, invoking blocks, referencing activation records, managing activation record stacks, and converting the virtual machine images.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 30, 1985
Accession Number
ADA172800

Entities

People

  • A. D. Samples
  • David Ungar
  • Paul Hilfinger

Organizations

  • University of California, Berkeley

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Compilers
  • Computer Architecture
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Computing System Architectures
  • Debugging
  • Instruction Set Architecture
  • Language
  • Machine Languages
  • Object Code
  • Personal Computers
  • Simulators
  • Software Design
  • Software Development
  • Virtual Machines

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Applied Combinatorial Optimization and Logic Circuit Design.
  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Parallel and Distributed Computing.