JP2000311091A - Cache method and its device for symbol reference information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a storage area to absolute min. and to improve operation speed in the case of execution in the co-existing execution of an execution module and an interpreter code. SOLUTION: The execution module 4 is generated by compiling from an input file being a form to be executed in an interpreter system 5 and executed in cooperation with a prepared run-time environment in an information processor. In the information processor, a management array (symbol pointer array) 10 is independently provided. When a first dissolving processing is executed, the result is recorded in the execution module 4 simultaneously with the internal processing of the interpreter and it is utilized after that so that an overhead with the dissolving processing is reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is used in an information processing apparatus that creates an execution module by compiling from an input file in a format that can be executed by an interpreter, and executes the module in cooperation with an execution (runtime) environment prepared in advance. And a method and an apparatus for caching symbol reference information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Program languages can be divided into those compiled and those interpreted by an interpreter when distinguished from the form of execution in an information processing apparatus. The former compiles a source program and converts it into a machine language that can be executed by the computer according to a specific computer architecture. C and COBOL are representatives of this. The latter is temporarily converted into an intermediate-format program code, and the intermediate-format program code is executed while being sequentially interpreted by an interpreter. This method does not require compile processing, but has the disadvantage that the execution speed is slow because sequential conversion is required at the time of execution. BASIC or Java
a corresponds to this. On the other hand, a hybrid compiler interpreter having advantages of both a compiler and an interpreter is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-230976 "Method and Apparatus for Resolving References". It describes in detail a method and apparatus for resolving data references in generated code by an interpreter that generates code executable by a compiler and interprets the compiled code.

[0003]

By the way, with the interpreter alone, in the process of resolving symbols such as methods, objects, and constants, the reference position is recorded at the first access, and the recorded reference position is directly accessed from the second time. To access the entity of this symbol information. As this mechanism, by rewriting the instruction itself after the execution of the first instruction, it is possible to determine at a high speed whether or not the symbol solving process has been completed and execute it. However, the execution module generated by the compiler is processed independently of the resolution of the symbol managed by the interpreter. Therefore, as disclosed in the above publication, when the interpreter and the native code coexist and execute cooperatively, the symbol solving process unrelated to the interpreter causes a problem in executing the program through the interpreter. Also, since instructions cannot be rewritten,
There has been a desire for a method and apparatus for performing a solution process without sacrificing execution speed. The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an information processing apparatus that creates an execution module by compiling from an input file in a format that can be executed by an interpreter and executes the execution module in cooperation with a runtime environment prepared in advance, It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for caching symbol reference information, which can minimize the number of symbols and improve the operation speed at the time of execution.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for caching symbol reference information, comprising the steps of: compiling an execution module from an input file in a format executable by an interpreter; In an information processing apparatus that executes in cooperation with a prepared runtime environment, the interpreter has, as an operand of an instruction, an index of a management array of symbol information generated by the compiler, and refers to symbol information not included in the execution module. In doing so, the execution module is accessed via the interpreter, the symbol information is resolved by updating the instruction including the operand, and the content is also recorded in the execution module. Using the symbol information And wherein the reference. According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a symbol information caching method.
In the method of referring to symbol information described in 1, the symbol information is referenced through the interpreter by recording an initial value in an integer array generated by the compiler, and pointer information to the actual state of the symbol information is executed. By referring to the values recorded in the integer array in the module, the symbol resolution processing is executed only at the time of compiling or the first time at the time of execution.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus for creating an execution module by compiling from an input file in a format executable by an interpreter and executing the execution module in cooperation with a runtime environment prepared in advance. First means in the interpreter having an index of a management array of symbol information generated by the compiler as an operand of the instruction and accessing an execution module when referring to symbol information not present in the execution module; A second means in the interpreter for executing a symbol information solving process by updating an instruction including an operand and recording the content of the symbol information in the execution module. The execution module to be referenced And having a means in the Le.

[0006] In the above-described configuration, the result is recorded in the execution module at the same time as the internal processing of the interpreter at the time of the first solution processing, and the overhead associated with the solution processing is used by using it thereafter. Reduction can be achieved. In particular, a significant improvement in execution speed can be expected for a program that calls the same function many times or accesses the same variable many times. Also, for symbols that can be determined statically at compile time, by storing the result in an execution module at compile time, the processing speed of any program can be significantly reduced.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an input program to be interpreted,
Code compiler (hereinafter simply referred to as compiler 2)
And to the interpreter system 5. Reference numeral 3 denotes an assembly code file converted and output by the compiler 2. Reference numeral 4 denotes an execution module obtained by converting an assembly code generated by the compiler 2 into a load module in an execution format. Reference numeral 5 denotes an interpreter system for sequentially interpreting and executing the input program 1. The input program 1 is a file in a format that can be sequentially interpreted and executed by the interpreter system 5. At execution, the execution module 4 is called from a program module constituting the interpreter system 5 and starts operation. The interpreter system 5 is called whenever necessary after the start of execution. The compiler 2 receives as input a file in a format that can be interpreted and executed by the interpreter system 5, reads its contents, and performs an equivalent process on the assembly code file 3
Generate and output The assembly code file 3 contains:
An integer array for managing symbols such as variables and functions in the interpreter system 5 is provided, and “0” is recorded as an initial value. The assembly code file 3 generated and output here is converted into an execution module 4 using a normal assembler or the like.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are views cited for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an outline of an operation when an execution module and an interpreter code are mixedly executed, and an outline of a symbol solving process performed by the interpreter system and the execution module. FIG.
The execution module 4 and the interpretation system 5, and
This is a schematic representation of how the input programs 1 and 6 read and executed by the interpreter system 5 cooperate and execute. The input program 1 is the same as the input program in FIG. The input program 6 is a program that is called from the input program 1 or is called and executed. FIG. 3 is a diagram cited for explaining the symbol solving process, and the interpreter system 5 includes:
The operation is performed using the input programs 1 and 6 as input. Symbols 11 such as methods, objects, and constants are referred to by a pointer from a management array (symbol pointer array) 10 and used as operands of instructions. , Has an index of the array, and can access the entity. When executed by the interpreter system 5 alone, instructions and operands are rewritten, and symbols 11 such as methods and objects are directly designated. This rewriting operation of the operand reference is referred to as a symbol solving process.

Hereinafter, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
At the time of execution, the execution is performed using the execution module 4, but the execution module 4 calls and executes the interpreter system 5 for an object access, a method call, or the like that is not included in the execution module 4. When executing in such a form, variables and constants closed in the input program 1 can be natively managed and executed independently.
Objects, methods, etc. in the input program 1
Those that may be accessed from other program modules 6, such as constants, are as follows:
The execution module 4 and the interpreter system 5 may be interpreted and executed by the interpreter system 5.
A mechanism to cooperate is required.

[0010] Here, for the method, the execution module 4 is accessed through the interpreter system 5, and for the object, the input program 1 is used and input to the interpreter system 5, and the interpreter system 5 alone uses the input program 1. Manage in the same way as when you run it. When executing the execution module 4 and accessing these objects, the input program 1
Use the object management format of When accessing a method or an object of the module 6 other than the input program, the method is called through the interpreter system 5 and the object is accessed by the interpreter system 5.
Access by the method of. The execution of the execution module 4 and the interpreter system 5 in cooperation with each other is hereinafter referred to as mixed execution (execution module and interpreter code). In the case of execution by the interpreter system 5 alone, the symbol information can be accessed at a high speed using the pointer of the operand after the second access due to the symbol resolution processing described above.

The problem here is that in the mixed execution of the interpreter system 5 and the execution module 4, the execution of the interpreter system 5 is slower than the execution of the execution module, and the symbol resolution processing through the interpreter system 5 is performed. Also, the process of checking whether or not a symbol has been resolved is a factor that slows down the process of the execution module 4 as in the case of execution.
The symbol resolution processing is performed only once for access to the same symbol if the mechanism in the interpreter system 5 is used. However, in the mixed execution with the execution module 4, it is necessary to check whether or not the symbol has been resolved. Alone, mixed execution with the interpreter system 5 is required. Therefore, when the compiler 2 outputs the assembly code file 3, the assembly code file 3 includes an integer array (symbol, pointer, pointer, etc.) for managing symbols such as objects and methods in the interpreter system 5.
Array) 10 is prepared and "0" is given as an initial value. At the time of the first symbol resolution processing, the symbol is resolved through the interpreter system 5 and, at the same time, the information of the pointer to the entity of the symbol is recorded in the integer array 13 in the execution module 4. Since some symbols have information that can be determined at the time of compilation, such as reference to constants, such information is determined at the time of compilation, and the constants and the like are recorded at the output stage of the assembly code file 3. The determination as to whether the determination is made at the compilation stage or at the first execution is distinguished depending on whether "0" is included in the integer array or other values are included.

With these processes, the execution module 4
As for the symbol reference from, the symbol resolution processing is limited to the first time at the time of compilation or at the time of execution, and whether or not the symbol has been resolved can be processed by the execution module 4 alone. That is, the execution speed can be increased. What is obtained by symbol resolution processing is an address or a constant. In the case of a constant, there is a possibility that “0” may be entered depending on the solution processing. In addition, it can be said that there is almost no case where "0" is entered due to the nature of the program, and the influence on the processing speed is minimized.

[0013]

The processing speed of the interpreter is slower than the operation of the execution module 4, and how to reduce the processing of the interpreter is an important design item for improving the processing speed. For native code that cannot be rewritten, how to reduce the overhead due to the solution processing is an important design item for improving the processing speed. Although it is possible to perform the resolution process only once using the internal mechanism of the interpreter, mixed execution with the interpreter is not eliminated. Therefore, the management array is independently provided, and the result is recorded in the execution module at the same time as the internal processing of the interpreter at the time of the first solution processing, and by using the result thereafter, the overhead associated with the solution processing can be reduced. The present invention, in particular,
Significant improvement in execution speed can be expected for a program that calls the same function many times or accesses the same variable many times. Also, for symbols that can be determined statically at compile time, by storing the result in an execution module at compile time, the processing speed of any program can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of operation at the time of mixed execution by an execution module and an interpreter according to the embodiment of the present invention in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an outline of a symbol solving process according to the embodiment of the present invention in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 (6) ... input program, 2 ... interpreted
Code compiler (compiler), 3 ... assembly
Code file, 4 ... Execution module (load module), 5 ... Interpreter system, 10 ... Symbol management array, 11 ... Symbols

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus for creating an execution module by compiling from an input file in a format that can be executed by an interpreter and executing the module in cooperation with an execution environment prepared in advance, wherein the interpreter uses the compiler as an operand of an instruction. Has an index of a management array of symbol information generated by the above, and refers to the symbol information not in the execution module, accesses the execution module via the interpreter, and updates the instruction including the operand to obtain the symbol information. Wherein the contents of the execution module are recorded and the symbol information is referred to using the pointer of the operand thereafter. 2. An initial value is recorded in an integer array generated by the compiler so that symbol information is referred to through the interpreter and pointer information to the actual state of the symbol information is stored in an integer array in an execution module. By referring to the value recorded in the first time at the time of compiling or executing the symbol resolution processing at the first time.
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method is executed only once. 3. An information processing apparatus which creates an execution module by compiling from an input file in a format executable by an interpreter and executes the module in cooperation with an execution environment prepared in advance, the information processing apparatus being generated by the compiler as an operand of an instruction. A first means in the interpreter for accessing an execution module having an index of an array for managing symbol information and referring to the symbol information which is not in the execution module, and updating the instruction including the operand to obtain the symbol information. A second means in the interpreter for executing the solution processing and recording the content in the execution module, and a means in the execution module for referring to the symbol information using the pointer of the operand. Symbol reference information characterized by the following: Cache device.