Assist Thread Compilation for Multi-threaded Processors

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The next generation of computers will be multi-threaded,allowing the simultaneous execution of several programs.Most computer workloads are difficult to recast intomulti-threaded form, under-utilizing multi-threading capabilities.This research studies a new approach to program translation:Assist Threads.An assist thread is a specialized version of an application program that,when run as an independent thread, assists (and optimizes) the application.Roles for assist threads include program profiling, monitoring, pre-execution,and memory management.Experiments show that assist threadscan effectively implement garbage collection.An assist thread mimics an application's execution,tracking memory accesses and recycling unused memory as it is recognized.The main application thread ignores memory management concerns,becoming simpler, faster and more reliable.Other varieties of assist threads execute slightly in advance of anapplication program, precomputing and preloading needed data values.This research makes both theoretical and practical contributions tocompiler technology. It explores how to generate the computationsnecessary to implement assist threads. It also experiments with a varietyof assist threads, evaluating their effectiveness and efficiency.In summary, this research opens new avenues of application for multi-threadedprocessors, making them more effective in supporting the needs of a widevariety of computer users.