[kaffe] Kaffe Documentation / JIT for VLIW

[Gerlando Falauto]

On Wed, 27 Nov 2002, Archie Cobbs wrote:

> Gerlando Falauto wrote:
> > > Compiling kaffe on linux with CFLAGS -ansi -pedantic
> > > first, might help fix some of the portability
> > > problems. If you do so, please send us the patches.
> > 
> > This is a very neat idea, thanks a lot. I will definitely give it a shot.  
> 
> This may be a ridiculous suggestion depending on what else you
> will be doing with your new hardware but... you might even consider
> trying to port GCC to your new architecture. The process is complicated
> but fairly well documented, and not as impossible as it sounds :-)

Actually I do appreciate your suggestion, though you are overestimating my
potential.  

The thing is, the ultimate goal of my thesis would be, if ever, to explore
the world of Just-In-Time translation for VLIW processors. 

To me, it seems already impossible to come up with some almost-working
back-end:

* for the Kaffe-JIT engine, which appears to me as a mid-size software
project

* which needs not be aggressively optimized, considering it will have to 
translate at run-time

* from a fairly simple instruction set as the JVM one appears to be

Thinking of writing a VLIW back end for GCC (to which none of the above
will ever apply), would no doubt make me want to kill myself right away.
;-)

By the way, what does everybody know/think of such an experiment (i.e.,
JIT for VLIW processors)? Given my total lack of knowledge on this field,
*ANY* (and I really mean *ANY*) kind of contribution could potentially
save my life and/or help me get a degree before my grandchildren do. :')

Please save my life, if you can! ;-)
Thank you for your patience.
Gerlando