Delft-Java link translation buffer

Describes the hardware support in the Delft-Java processor which enables efficient dynamic linking of Java programs. The proposed mechanism supports method invocation of dynamically linked classes through the use of a link translation buffer (LTB). Since our instruction set architecture directly supports dynamically linked method invocation, the LTB is architecturally transparent to the executing program. The operation of the LTB is described and preliminary performance results are reported. Method invocation differences between the C++ programming language and the Java programming language are outlined. Preliminary performance results for the LTB suggest that program performance may improve from 1.1× to 1.5× when a suitable LTB is used to cache frequently utilized methods