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

今天的大部分信息基础设施都使用虚拟机（vm）。例如，消费者设备通常包含用于Java、JavaScript和Flash的虚拟机。vm通常非常适合将新功能扩展到广泛的目标设备，这就是为什么一直在创建新的vm的原因。不幸的是，今天的大多数虚拟机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巨大浪费。这个项目的目标是使创建虚拟机更简单，通过创建一个“工具箱”的组件，新的虚拟机可以很容易地构建。技术上的挑战是创建可以组合在一起工作的构建块，就像今天定制的vm一样。在许多情况下，虚拟机性能是至关重要的。例如，在移动设备上，较慢的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消耗。这项研究表明，也许有一天，我们能够为Java、JavaScript和Flash创建一个具有竞争力的性能的虚拟机，其中一些部分是共享的，这样总大小就比三个独立的虚拟机小得多。这对于资源受限的设备（如移动电话）非常重要。重用组件而不是每次都重新发明轮子可以降低新语言的入门成本。共享组件也会导致调试资源的汇集，减少错误，从而导致更安全，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.