Experience in the Design, Implementation and Use ofa Retargetable Static Binary Translation Framework

Binary translation, the process of translating binary executables, makes it possible to run code compiled for source (input) machine Ms on target (output) machine Mt. Unlike an interpreter or emulator, a binary translator makes it possible to approach the speed of native code on machine Mt. Translated code may still run slower than native code because low-level properties of machine Ms must often be modeled on machine Mt. The University of Queensland Binary Translation (UQBT) framework is a retargetable framework for experimenting with static binary translation on CISC and RISC machines. The system was built jointly by The University of Queensland and Sun Microsystems Laboratories in order to experiment with translations to and from different machines, to understand how to migrate applications from other UNIX®-based platforms to a (SPARC®, SolarisTM) platform, and to experiment with translations from the current SPARC architecture to a future, not yet existing, version of the SPARC architecture. This paper describes the overall design and architecture of the UQBT framework, the goals for the project, the resulting framework, experiences with translations across different machines, and lessons learned. email address: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] © 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc., Harvard University, and The University of Queenland. All rights reserved. The SML Technical Report Series is published by Sun Microsystems Laboratories, of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Printed in U.S.A. Unlimited copying without fee is permitted provided that the copies are not made nor distributed for direct commercial advantage, and credit to the source is given. Otherwise, no part of this work covered by copyright hereon may be reproduced in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or storage in an information retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. TRADEMARKS Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, Java, JVM, and Java HotSpot are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. For information regarding the SML Technical Report Series, contact Jeanie Treichel, Editor-in-Chief .All technical reports are available online on our Website, http://research.sun.com/techrep/. Experience in the Design, Implementation and Use of a Retargetable Static Binary Translation Framework Cristina Cifuentes Sun Microsystems Laboratories Palo Alto, CA 94303, USA [email protected] Mike Van Emmerik The University of Queensland Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia [email protected] Norman Ramsey Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 01238, USA [email protected] Brian Lewis Sun Microsystems Laboratories Palo Alto, CA 94303, USA [email protected]