Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!spdcc!ima!johnl
From: johnl@ima.ima.isc.com (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: object <-> object translation (
Message-ID: <2939@ima.ima.isc.com>
Date: 21 Nov 88 04:33:41 GMT
References: <2934@ima.ima.isc.com> <28200239@urbsdc>
Reply-To: johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine)
Organization: Not much
Lines: 16

In article <28200239@urbsdc> aglew@urbsdc.Urbana.Gould.COM writes:
>How does "dynamic translation" differ from interpretation?

Interpreters crack one instruction at a time; the dynamic translation
approach translates chunks of object code to host machine target code
and reuses the translated stuff unless stores into the code space force
it to retranslate.  Such stores are pretty common on PCs, since most
applications of any size are overlaid.

The effect is the same except that translating a block at a time seems to
get an order of magnitude better performance than doing one instruction
at a time.
-- 
John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 492 3869
{ bbn | spdcc | decvax | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something
Kids spend more time with their parents than parents spend with their kids.