Advances and future challenges in binary translation and optimization

Binary translation and optimization have achieved a high profile in recent years. Binary translation has several potential attractions. While still in its early stages, could binary translation offer a new way to design processors, i.e. is it a disruptive technology? This paper discusses this question, examines some future possibilities for binary translation, and then gives an overview of selected projects (DAISY, Crusoe, Dynamo and LaTTe). One future possibility for binary translation is the Virtual IT Shop. Binary translation offers a possible solution for better utilization of computational resources as services over the World Wide Web. The Internet is radically changing the software landscape, and is fostering platform independence and interoperability. Along the lines of software convergence, recent advances in binary JIT (just-in-time) optimizations also present the future possibility of a convergence virtual machine (CVM). CVM aims to address research challenges in allowing the same standard operating system and application object code to run on different hardware platforms, through state-of-the-art JIT compilation and virtual device emulation.