Johannes Kepler, Linz, Austria – Hanspeter Moessenbock

Since 2001, the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria has been collaborating with Oracle’s Java HotSpot team and the Maxine group of Oracle Labs to improve the performance of the HotSpot client compiler, the HotSpot VM, and the Maxine VM. The major results of this research collaboration so far are:

• several compiler optimizations such as Escape Analysis, Scalar Replacement, Object Colocation, Object Fusion and Array Bounds Check Elimination
• An implementation of continuations and co-routines for Java
• New garbage collection algorithms for multi-tasking Java environments, especially on mobile devices
• A new linear-scan register allocator, which is now part of the HotSpot client compiler
• Several compiler optimizations such as Escape Analysis, Scalar Replacement, Object Colocation, Object Fusion and Array Bounds Check Elimination
• Support for unrestricted Dynamic Code Evolution (Hotswapping) for a variant of the HotSpot VM
• An implementation of continuations and co-routines for Java
• New garbage collection algorithms for multi-tasking Java environments, especially on mobile devices
• Visualization tools for the internal data structures of the HotSpot compilers (C1 Visualizer and IdealGraphVisualizer)

Hanspeter Moessenbock, Johannes Kepler Professor says….”Our long-term cooperation with Oracle allows us to do research on compilers and virtual machines and at the same time see the results being embedded into the world's leading Java system. The project helps us to attract the best of our PhD and master students. Two of our former PhD students are now working as engineers for Oracle Labs.”