Abstract
Resource constraints are a major concern with the design, development, and deployment of embedded systems. Embedded systems are highly hardware-dependent and have little computational power. Mobile embedded systems are further constrained by their limited battery capacity. Many of these systems are still programmed in assembly language because there is a lack of efficient programming environments. To overcome or at least alleviate the restrictions, we propose a light-weight and versatile programming environment for the C programming language that offers mixed-mode execution, i.e., code is either executed on the CPU or on a virtual machine (VM). This mixed-mode execution environment combines the advantages of highly compressed bytecode with the speed of machine code. We have implemented the programming environment and conducted experiments for selected programs of the MiBench suite and the Spec 2000. The VM has a footprint of 12 KB on the Intel IA32. Initial results show that the performance of the virtual machine is typically only 2 to 36 times slower than the binary execution, with compressed code occupying only 36%-57% of the machine code size. Combining sequences of VM instructions into new VM instructions (superinstructions) increases the execution speed and reduces the VM code size. Preliminary experiments indicate a speedup by a factor of 3.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Euro-Par 2006 Parallel Processing - 12th International Euro-Par Conference, Proceedings |
| Publisher | Springer Verlag |
| Pages | 1204-1216 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| Volume | 4128 LNCS |
| ISBN (Print) | 3540377832, 9783540377832 |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 Jan 1 |
| Event | 12th International Euro-Par Conference 2006 - Lisbon, Portugal Duration: 2006 Aug 28 → 2006 Sep 1 |
Publication series
| Name | Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) |
|---|---|
| Volume | 4128 LNCS |
| ISSN (Print) | 0302-9743 |
| ISSN (Electronic) | 1611-3349 |
Other
| Other | 12th International Euro-Par Conference 2006 |
|---|---|
| Country | Portugal |
| City | Lisbon |
| Period | 06/8/28 → 06/9/1 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Theoretical Computer Science
- Computer Science(all)
Cite this
}
An embedded systems programming environment for C. / Burgstaller, Bernd; Scholz, Bernhard; Ertl, Anton.
Euro-Par 2006 Parallel Processing - 12th International Euro-Par Conference, Proceedings. Vol. 4128 LNCS Springer Verlag, 2006. p. 1204-1216 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 4128 LNCS).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution
TY - GEN
T1 - An embedded systems programming environment for C
AU - Burgstaller, Bernd
AU - Scholz, Bernhard
AU - Ertl, Anton
PY - 2006/1/1
Y1 - 2006/1/1
N2 - Resource constraints are a major concern with the design, development, and deployment of embedded systems. Embedded systems are highly hardware-dependent and have little computational power. Mobile embedded systems are further constrained by their limited battery capacity. Many of these systems are still programmed in assembly language because there is a lack of efficient programming environments. To overcome or at least alleviate the restrictions, we propose a light-weight and versatile programming environment for the C programming language that offers mixed-mode execution, i.e., code is either executed on the CPU or on a virtual machine (VM). This mixed-mode execution environment combines the advantages of highly compressed bytecode with the speed of machine code. We have implemented the programming environment and conducted experiments for selected programs of the MiBench suite and the Spec 2000. The VM has a footprint of 12 KB on the Intel IA32. Initial results show that the performance of the virtual machine is typically only 2 to 36 times slower than the binary execution, with compressed code occupying only 36%-57% of the machine code size. Combining sequences of VM instructions into new VM instructions (superinstructions) increases the execution speed and reduces the VM code size. Preliminary experiments indicate a speedup by a factor of 3.
AB - Resource constraints are a major concern with the design, development, and deployment of embedded systems. Embedded systems are highly hardware-dependent and have little computational power. Mobile embedded systems are further constrained by their limited battery capacity. Many of these systems are still programmed in assembly language because there is a lack of efficient programming environments. To overcome or at least alleviate the restrictions, we propose a light-weight and versatile programming environment for the C programming language that offers mixed-mode execution, i.e., code is either executed on the CPU or on a virtual machine (VM). This mixed-mode execution environment combines the advantages of highly compressed bytecode with the speed of machine code. We have implemented the programming environment and conducted experiments for selected programs of the MiBench suite and the Spec 2000. The VM has a footprint of 12 KB on the Intel IA32. Initial results show that the performance of the virtual machine is typically only 2 to 36 times slower than the binary execution, with compressed code occupying only 36%-57% of the machine code size. Combining sequences of VM instructions into new VM instructions (superinstructions) increases the execution speed and reduces the VM code size. Preliminary experiments indicate a speedup by a factor of 3.
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M3 - Conference contribution
SN - 3540377832
SN - 9783540377832
VL - 4128 LNCS
T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
SP - 1204
EP - 1216
BT - Euro-Par 2006 Parallel Processing - 12th International Euro-Par Conference, Proceedings
PB - Springer Verlag
ER -