SHF: CSR: Small: Fine-Grained Modularity and Reuse of VM Components

当今的许多信息基础设施都使用了虚拟机器(VM)。例如，消费设备通常包含用于Java、JavaScript和Flash的VMs。VM通常非常适合将新功能部署到广泛的目标设备，这就是为什么一直在创建新的VM。不幸的是，今天的大多数VM都是从头开始创建的，尽管它们非常相似。这是对程序员时间和金钱的相当大的浪费。该项目的目标是通过创建组件的“工具箱”使创建VM变得更简单，从中可以很容易地构造新的VM。技术挑战是创建可以组合在一起工作的构造块以及当今定制的VM。在许多情况下，VM性能至关重要。例如，在移动设备上，较低的VM可能会迫使我们以更高的速度运行处理器，从而导致更快的电池耗尽。这项研究承诺，有一天人们可能能够为Java、Java和Flash创建一个性能具有竞争力的VM，其中的一些部分是共享的，因此总的大小远远小于三个独立的VM。这对于移动电话等资源受限的设备非常重要。重复使用组件而不是每次都重新发明轮子将降低新语言的入门成本。共享组件还将导致集中调试资源，减少错误，从而导致更安全和更稳定的计算基础设施。

Much of today's information infrastructure makes use of virtualmachines (VMs). For example, consumer devices typically contain VMsfor Java, JavaScript, and Flash. VMs are often well suited to roll outnew capabilities to a broad range of target devices, which is why newVMs are being created all the time. Unfortunately, most VMs today arecreated from scratch, in spite of the fact that they are broadlysimilar. This is a considerable waste of programmer time and money.The goal of this project is to make creating VMs simpler, by creatinga "toolbox" of components from which new VMs can be constructedeasily.The technical challenge is to create building blocks that can be puttogether to work as well as the custom-crafted VMs of today. In manycases, VM performance is critical. For example, on mobile devices, aslower VM might force us to run the processor at a higher speed,leading to faster battery depletion. This research promises that one may one day be able to create a competitivelyperforming VM for Java, JavaScript and Flash in which some parts areshared, so that the total size is much smaller than three separateVMs. This is important for resource-constrained devices such asmobile phones. Re-using components rather than reinventing the wheeleach time would reduce the entry cost for new languages. Sharingcomponents would also lead to pooling of debugging resources, reducingerrors and thereby leading to a safer and more stable computinginfrastructure.