Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University ›› 2015, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (02): 173-177.

• Automation Technique, Computer Technology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Dynamic Binary Translation Algorithm Based on Characteristic of Transfer Instructions

LI Zhanhui1,MENG Jianyi2,CHEN Zhijian1,YAN Xiaolang1,2   

  1. (1. Institute of VLSI Design, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China; 2. State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, Fudan University, Shanghai 201203, China)
  • Received:2014-05-26 Online:2015-02-28 Published:2015-02-28

Abstract:

Abstract: The traditional dynamic binary translator(DBT) deals with different kinds of transfer instructions in the same way, which leads to great performance loss of DBT. This paper proposed a novel DBT algorithm composed of directmapping and transfertypeinheriting mechanism to efficiently handle transfer translation,based on the distinctive characteristics between innerfunction and outerfunction transfers. Innerfunction transfers were exactly mapped to the same type of transfers in the source machine, which not only reduced the transfers induced by conditional branches, but also avoids memory synchronizations. Outerfunction transfers were dealt with differently to pass function callreturn attributes from source code to translation code, thus improving the hit rate of the target machine branch predictor. The experiment results from EEMBC(embedded microprocessor benchmark consortium) show that the instructions executed in translation code of transfers has been reduced by 58.9%, the branch predictor hit rate has been increased by 80.7%, and the overall DBT performance has been improved by 12.3%.

Key words: dynamic binary translation (DBT), transfer instructions, direct mapping, branch predictor

CLC Number: