Conclusions

In this paper we have proposed a new runtime call graph construction mechanism for dynamic IPAs in a JIT environment. Our approach uses code stubs to capture the first-time execution of a call edge. The new mechanism avoids iterative propagation which is costly at runtime. We also addressed another important problem faced by dynamic IPAs: lazy class loading. Our approach handles the problem transparently. An important characteristic of our mechanism is that it supports speculative optimizations with invalidation backups. Our preliminary results showed that the overhead of online call graph construction is very small, and the call graph is much smaller than the one built by dynamic CHA.

Based on runtime call graphs, we outlined the design of a dynamic XTA type analysis. The model of handling unresolved references is applicable to other dynamic IPAs.

Based on the encouraging results so far, we are working on combining call graph profiling and dynamic CHA to deal with boot images and JNI calls. We also plan to use the results of dynamic XTA to expose more opportunities for method inlining. We are also planning to use the runtime call graphs, and the fundamental approach already used for dynamic XTA, for developing other dynamic reachability-based IPAs, e.g. escape analysis [33].