Binary Translation Research

While concentrating on research, this is also a miscellaneous page.

• The novel Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM) http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/ is a product of the Lifelong Code Optimization Project, led by Vikram Adve in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. LLVM is (1) a compilation strategy, (2) a virtual instruction set and (3) a compiler infrastructure.

• Reuben Thomas has written an open source Virtual Machine called Mite which is designed for easy JIT translation.

• Dixie from Universitat Politecnic de Catalynya uses a machine independent Virtual Machine.

• SimOS, the complete machine simulator. The Embra subsystem uses dynamic binary translation to perform simulations. Slowdowns of only 3-9 are claimed.

• Michael D. Smith's Research Group on Compilation and Computer Architecture at Harvard has several projects on binary translation, e.g. Deco (a system for dynamic code optimization).

• The Object Code Translation home page, maintained by Markus Pilz, at the University of Zurich. Markus is working on Java Bytecode Compilation techniques (a special case of binary translation).

• The Diamonds Project. This project is part of the Open Microprocessor Initiative in the Fourth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. The goal of Diamonds was to design a new 8/16-bit RISC microcontroller providing CISC software compatibility.

• HiProf, TracePoint's binary code instrumentation of 32-bit PE Windows binaries received good reviews in the press (see PC Magazine Online's, LAN Times Magazine's, PC Week's, and Windows Magazine's reviews). However, TracePoint exists no more.

• Etch Instrumentation and Optimization of Windows 32-bit x86 Executables.

• Cygnus' GNU-Win32 Project provides Win32 ports of popular GNU tools for Windows NT and 95.

• TIBBIT Timing Insensitive Binary to Binary Translation.

• UQBT The retargetable static Binary Translation project at The University of Queensland. The source code for UQBT has been released; see http://www.experimentalstuff.com/Technologies/uqbt/index.html.

• Walkabout. This is a dynamic version of UQBT, i.e. it is a dynamic Binary Translator. The dynamic parts were developed at Sun Microsystems. The source code for Walkabout has been released under a BSD-like license. In fact, UQBT is released as part of Walkabout now.

• Lucent Technologies' FlashPort multi-platform translation services.

• Digital's translators
  • The hybrid translator FX!32 runs x86 Win32 applications on Windows NT Alpha systems. Discontinued.
  • FreePort Express Translates SunOS 4.1.x binaries to Alpha AXP binaries. Still available in 2001.
  • Alpha Migration Tools
  • Richard Gorton's Usenet postings about FreePort Express (2 postings, text)
  • The OM and ATOM projects on binary modifications, from the former Digital Research Labs.

• Executor Macintosh emulator for DOS, WIndows, OS/2, Linus and NextStep.

• Emulation Software R&D WWW Page. Last updated 1997.

• David Keppel (aka Pardo) Shade Simulator. Shade is a way of instrumenting Sparc binary files, and collecting all sorts of data. Shade is still available, and even has VIS 3.0 and 64 bit support now. See http://wwws.sun.com/software/download/products/3ff9c026.html (referenced Dec 2004).

• wxWindows is a free C++ multiplatform GUI toolkit.

• IEEE "Computer" article on the Public Windows Interface concept. This may have fallen into disuse.

• The Wine Project is a cleanroom implementation of the Win32 and Windows 3.1 APIs, using X and Linux for the core operating system functionality. There is no translation here; Wine only works on an X86 machine running Linux. In a sense it's complementary to binary translation; binary translation emulates the processor, but something like Wine emulates the operating system.

• Compiler technology developed for Sun's Self system.

• QEMU is a FAST! processor emulator using dynamic translation to achieve good emulation speed.

• PearColator is a dynamic binary translator; providing "optimizing compiler fast PowerPC emulation, using the Jikes RVM as a dynamic binary translator (DBT)". Remarkably, it is written in Java, and runs under the JVM (not natively compiled). Still under development but already runs a number of applications.

• PearPC is an architecture-independent PowerPC platform emulator capable of running most PowerPC operating systems. Runs on little endian (e.g. Pentium) Linux and Win32 platforms.

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CategoryBinaryTranslation