Hasty Briefsbeta

A Fast Bytecode VM for Arithmetic: The Virtual Machine

a day ago
  • #Haskell
  • #Performance Optimization
  • #Virtual Machine
  • The article details the creation of a fast bytecode compiler and virtual machine (VM) for arithmetic expressions in Haskell.
  • Key components include parsing, compilation to bytecode, and execution via a stack-based VM, with a focus on performance optimization.
  • Property-based testing with QuickCheck ensures correctness across arbitrary inputs, highlighting the importance of testing in compiler development.
  • Performance benchmarks compare the Haskell VM against a C implementation, showing Haskell's VM is 1.5x to 2.6x slower but with significantly less code.
  • Optimizations in the Haskell VM include using mutable, unboxed arrays for the stack and careful loop structuring to aid branch prediction.
  • Future improvements suggested include parser optimizations, superinstructions, register-based VMs, and JIT compilation for further performance gains.