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

当今的信息基础设施大多使用虚拟机（VM）。例如，消费者设备通常包含用于Java、JavaScript和Flash的VM。虚拟机通常非常适合将新功能部署到各种目标设备，这就是为什么一直在创建新虚拟机的原因。不幸的是，今天的大多数虚拟机都是从头开始重新创建的，尽管它们非常相似。这是对程序员时间和金钱的巨大浪费。这个项目的目标是通过创建一个组件“工具箱”来简化虚拟机的创建，从这个工具箱中可以轻松地构建新的虚拟机。技术挑战是创建可以组合在一起的构建块，以便像今天定制的虚拟机一样工作。在许多情况下，VM性能至关重要。例如，在移动的设备上，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。这项研究有望有一天能够为Java、JavaScript和Flash创建一个具有竞争力的虚拟机，其中一些部分是共享的，因此总大小远远小于三个单独的虚拟机。这对于移动电话等资源受限的设备非常重要。重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。共享组件还将导致调试资源的池化，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.