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 <html>
 <head>
     <title>Dalvik Porting Guide</title>
 </head>

 <body>
 <h1>Dalvik Porting Guide</h1>

 <p>
 The Dalvik virtual machine is intended to run on a variety of platforms.
 The baseline system is expected to be a variant of UNIX (Linux, BSD, Mac
 OS X) running the GNU C compiler.  Little-endian CPUs have been exercised
 the most heavily, but big-endian systems are explicitly supported.
 </p><p>
 There are two general categories of work: porting to a Linux system
 with a previously unseen CPU architecture, and porting to a different
 operating system.  This document covers the former.
 </p><p>
 Basic familiarity with the Android platform, source code structure, and
 build system is assumed.
 </p>


 <h2>Core Libraries</h2>

 <p>
 The native code in the core libraries (chiefly <code>libcore</code>,
 but also <code>dalvik/vm/native</code>) is written in C/C++ and is expected
 to work without modification in a Linux environment.
 </p><p>
 The core libraries pull in code from many other projects, including
 OpenSSL, zlib, and ICU.  These will also need to be ported before the VM
 can be used.
 </p>


 <h2>JNI Call Bridge</h2>

 <p>
 Most of the Dalvik VM runtime is written in portable C.  The one
 non-portable component of the runtime is the JNI call bridge.  Simply put,
 this converts an array of integers into function arguments of various
 types, and calls a function.  This must be done according to the C calling
 conventions for the platform.  The task could be as simple as pushing all
 of the arguments onto the stack, or involve complex rules for register
 assignment and stack alignment.
 </p><p>
 To ease porting to new platforms, the <a href="http://sourceware.org/libffi/">
 open-source FFI library</a> (Foreign Function Interface) is used when a
 custom bridge is unavailable.  FFI is not as fast as a native implementation,
 and the optional performance improvements it does offer are not used, so
 writing a replacement is a good first step.
 </p><p>
 The code lives in <code>dalvik/vm/arch/*</code>, with the FFI-based version
 in the "generic" directory.  There are two source files for each architecture.
 One defines the call bridge itself:
 </p><p><blockquote>
 <code>void dvmPlatformInvoke(void* pEnv, ClassObject* clazz, int argInfo,
 int argc, const u4* argv, const char* signature, void* func,
 JValue* pReturn)</code>
 </blockquote></p><p>
 This will invoke a C/C++ function declared:
 </p><p><blockquote>
     <code>return_type func(JNIEnv* pEnv, Object* this [, <i>args</i>])<br></code>
 </blockquote>or (for a "static" method):<blockquote>
     <code>return_type func(JNIEnv* pEnv, ClassObject* clazz [, <i>args</i>])</code>
 </blockquote></p><p>
 The role of <code>dvmPlatformInvoke</code> is to convert the values in
 <code>argv</code> into C-style calling conventions, call the method, and
 then place the return type into <code>pReturn</code> (a union that holds
 all of the basic JNI types).  The code may use the method signature
 (a DEX "shorty" signature, with one character for the return type and one
 per argument) to determine how to handle the values.
 </p><p>
 The other source file involved here defines a 32-bit "hint".  The hint
 is computed when the method's class is loaded, and passed in as the
 "argInfo" argument.  The hint can be used to avoid scanning the ASCII
 method signature for things like the return value, total argument size,
 or inter-argument 64-bit alignment restrictions.


 <h2>Interpreter</h2>

 <p>
 The Dalvik runtime includes two interpreters, labeled "portable" and "fast".
 The portable interpreter is largely contained within a single C function,
 and should compile on any system that supports gcc.  (If you don't have gcc,
 you may need to disable the "threaded" execution model, which relies on
 gcc's "goto table" implementation; look for the THREADED_INTERP define.)
 </p><p>
 The fast interpreter uses hand-coded assembly fragments.  If none are
 available for the current architecture, the build system will create an
 interpreter out of C "stubs".  The resulting "all stubs" interpreter is
 quite a bit slower than the portable interpreter, making "fast" something
 of a misnomer.
 </p><p>
 The fast interpreter is enabled by default.  On platforms without native
 support, you may want to switch to the portable interpreter.  This can
 be controlled with the <code>dalvik.vm.execution-mode</code> system
 property.  For example, if you:
 </p><p><blockquote>
 <code>adb shell "echo dalvik.vm.execution-mode = int:portable >> /data/local.prop"</code>
 </blockquote></p><p>
 and reboot, the Android app framework will start the VM with the portable
 interpreter enabled.
 </p>


 <h3>Mterp Interpreter Structure</h3>

 <p>
 There may be significant performance advantages to rewriting the
 interpreter core in assembly language, using architecture-specific
 optimizations.  In Dalvik this can be done one instruction at a time.
 </p><p>
 The simplest way to implement an interpreter is to have a large "switch"
 statement.  After each instruction is handled, the interpreter returns to
 the top of the loop, fetches the next instruction, and jumps to the
 appropriate label.
 </p><p>
 An improvement on this is called "threaded" execution.  The instruction
 fetch and dispatch are included at the end of every instruction handler.
 This makes the interpreter a little larger overall, but you get to avoid
 the (potentially expensive) branch back to the top of the switch statement.
 </p><p>
 Dalvik mterp goes one step further, using a computed goto instead of a goto
 table.  Instead of looking up the address in a table, which requires an
 extra memory fetch on every instruction, mterp multiplies the opcode number
 by a fixed value.  By default, each handler is allowed 64 bytes of space.
 </p><p>
 Not all handlers fit in 64 bytes.  Those that don't can have subroutines
 or simply continue on to additional code outside the basic space.  Some of
 this is handled automatically by Dalvik, but there's no portable way to detect
 overflow of a 64-byte handler until the VM starts executing.
 </p><p>
 The choice of 64 bytes is somewhat arbitrary, but has worked out well for
 ARM and x86.
 </p><p>
 In the course of development it's useful to have C and assembly
 implementations of each handler, and be able to flip back and forth
 between them when hunting problems down.  In mterp this is relatively
 straightforward.  You can always see the files being fed to the compiler
 and assembler for your platform by looking in the
 <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/out</code> directory.
 </p><p>
 The interpreter sources live in <code>dalvik/vm/mterp</code>.  If you
 haven't yet, you should read <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/README.txt</code> now.
 </p>


 <h3>Getting Started With Mterp</h3>

 </p><p>
 Getting started:
 <ol>
 <li>Decide on the name of your architecture.  For the sake of discussion,
 let's call it <code>myarch</code>.
 <li>Make a copy of <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/config-allstubs</code> to
 <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/config-myarch</code>.
 <li>Create a <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/myarch</code> directory to hold your
 source files.
 <li>Add <code>myarch</code> to the list in
 <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/rebuild.sh</code>.
 <li>Make sure <code>dalvik/vm/Android.mk</code> will find the files for
 your architecture.  If <code>$(TARGET_ARCH)</code> is configured this
 will happen automatically.
 <li>Disable the Dalvik JIT.  You can do this in the general device
 configuration, or by editing the initialization of WITH_JIT in
 <code>dalvik/vm/Dvm.mk</code> to always be <code>false</code>.
 </ol>
 </p><p>
 You now have the basic framework in place.  Whenever you make a change, you
 need to perform two steps: regenerate the mterp output, and build the
 core VM library.  (It's two steps because we didn't want the build system
 to require Python 2.5.  Which, incidentally, you need to have.)
 <ol>
 <li>In the <code>dalvik/vm/mterp</code> directory, regenerate the contents
 of the files in <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/out</code> by executing
 <code>./rebuild.sh</code>.  Note there are two files, one in C and one
 in assembly.
 <li>In the <code>dalvik</code> directory, regenerate the
 <code>libdvm.so</code> library with <code>mm</code>.  You can also use
 <code>mmm dalvik/vm</code> from the top of the tree.
 </ol>
 </p><p>
 This will leave you with an updated libdvm.so, which can be pushed out to
 a device with <code>adb sync</code> or <code>adb push</code>.  If you're
 using the emulator, you need to add <code>make snod</code> (System image,
 NO Dependency check) to rebuild the system image file.  You should not
 need to do a top-level "make" and rebuild the dependent binaries.
 </p><p>
 At this point you have an "all stubs" interpreter.  You can see how it
 works by examining <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/cstubs/entry.c</code>.  The
 code runs in a loop, pulling out the next opcode, and invoking the
 handler through a function pointer.  Each handler takes a "glue" argument
 that contains all of the useful state.
 </p><p>
 Your goal is to replace the entry method, exit method, and each individual
 instruction with custom implementations.  The first thing you need to do
 is create an entry function that calls the handler for the first instruction.
 After that, the instructions chain together, so you don't need a loop.
 (Look at the ARM or x86 implementation to see how they work.)
 </p><p>
 Once you have that, you need something to jump to.  You can't branch
 directly to the C stub because it's expecting to be called with a "glue"
 argument and then return.  We need a C stub "wrapper" that does the
 setup and jumps directly to the next handler.  We write this in assembly
 and then add it to the config file definition.
 </p><p>
 To see how this works, create a file called
 <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/myarch/stub.S</code> that contains one line:
 <pre>
 /* stub for ${opcode} */
 </pre>
 Then, in <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/config-myarch</code>, add this below the
 <code>handler-size</code> directive:
 <pre>
 # source for the instruction table stub
 asm-stub myarch/stub.S
 </pre>
 </p><p>
 Regenerate the sources with <code>./rebuild.sh</code>, and take a look
 inside <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/out/InterpAsm-myarch.S</code>.  You should
 see 256 copies of the stub function in a single large block after the
 <code>dvmAsmInstructionStart</code> label.  The <code>stub.S</code>
 code will be used anywhere you don't provide an assembly implementation.
 </p><p>
 Note that each block begins with a <code>.balign 64</code> directive.
 This is what pads each handler out to 64 bytes.  Note also that the
 <code>${opcode}</code> text changed into an opcode name, which should
 be used to call the C implementation (<code>dvmMterp_${opcode}</code>).
 </p><p>
 The actual contents of <code>stub.S</code> are up to you to define.
 See <code>entry.S</code> and <code>stub.S</code> in the <code>armv5te</code>
 or <code>x86</code> directories for working examples.
 </p><p>
 If you're working on a variation of an existing architecture, you may be
 able to use most of the existing code and just provide replacements for
 a few instructions.  Look at the <code>vm/mterp/config-*</code> files
 for examples.
 </p>


 <h3>Replacing Stubs</h3>

 <p>
 There are roughly 250 Dalvik opcodes, including some that are inserted by
 <a href="dexopt.html">dexopt</a> and aren't described in the
 <a href="dalvik-bytecode.html">Dalvik bytecode</a> documentation.  Each
 one must perform the appropriate actions, fetch the next opcode, and
 branch to the next handler.  The actions performed by the assembly version
 must exactly match those performed by the C version (in
 <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/c/OP_*</code>).
 </p><p>
 It is possible to customize the set of "optimized" instructions for your
 platform.  This is possible because optimized DEX files are not expected
 to work on multiple devices.  Adding, removing, or redefining instructions
 is beyond the scope of this document, and for simplicity it's best to stick
 with the basic set defined by the portable interpreter.
 </p><p>
 Once you have written a handler that looks like it should work, add
 it to the config file.  For example, suppose we have a working version
 of <code>OP_NOP</code>.  For demonstration purposes, fake it for now by
 putting this into <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/myarch/OP_NOP.S</code>:
 <pre>
 /* This is my NOP handler */
 </pre>
 </p><p>
 Then, in the <code>op-start</code> section of <code>config-myarch</code>, add:
 <pre>
     op OP_NOP myarch
 </pre>
 </p><p>
 This tells the generation script to use the assembly version from the
 <code>myarch</code> directory instead of the C version from the <code>c</code>
 directory.
 </p><p>
 Execute <code>./rebuild.sh</code>.  Look at <code>InterpAsm-myarch.S</code>
 and <code>InterpC-myarch.c</code> in the <code>out</code> directory.  You
 will see that the <code>OP_NOP</code> stub wrapper has been replaced with our
 new code in the assembly file, and the C stub implementation is no longer
 included.
 </p><p>
 As you implement instructions, the C version and corresponding stub wrapper
 will disappear from the output files.  Eventually you will have a 100%
 assembly interpreter.  You may find it saves a little time to examine
 the output of your compiler for some of the operations.  The
 <a href="porting-proto.c.txt">porting-proto.c</a> sample code can be
 helpful here.
 </p>


 <h3>Interpreter Switching</h3>

 <p>
 The Dalvik VM actually includes a third interpreter implementation: the debug
 interpreter.  This is a variation of the portable interpreter that includes
 support for debugging and profiling.
 </p><p>
 When a debugger attaches, or a profiling feature is enabled, the VM
 will switch interpreters at a convenient point.  This is done at the
 same time as the GC safe point check: on a backward branch, a method
 return, or an exception throw.  Similarly, when the debugger detaches
 or profiling is discontinued, execution transfers back to the "fast" or
 "portable" interpreter.
 </p><p>
 Your entry function needs to test the "entryPoint" value in the "glue"
 pointer to determine where execution should begin.  Your exit function
 will need to return a boolean that indicates whether the interpreter is
 exiting (because we reached the "bottom" of a thread stack) or wants to
 switch to the other implementation.
 </p><p>
 See the <code>entry.S</code> file in <code>x86</code> or <code>armv5te</code>
 for examples.
 </p>


 <h3>Testing</h3>

 <p>
 A number of VM tests can be found in <code>dalvik/tests</code>.  The most
 useful during interpreter development is <code>003-omnibus-opcodes</code>,
 which tests many different instructions.
 </p><p>
 The basic invocation is:
 <pre>
 $ cd dalvik/tests
 $ ./run-test 003
 </pre>
 </p><p>
 This will run test 003 on an attached device or emulator.  You can run
 the test against your desktop VM by specifying <code>--reference</code>
 if you suspect the test may be faulty.  You can also use
 <code>--portable</code> and <code>--fast</code> to explictly specify
 one Dalvik interpreter or the other.
 </p><p>
 Some instructions are replaced by <code>dexopt</code>, notably when
 "quickening" field accesses and method invocations.  To ensure
 that you are testing the basic form of the instruction, add the
 <code>--no-optimize</code> option.
 </p><p>
 There is no in-built instruction tracing mechanism.  If you want
 to know for sure that your implementation of an opcode handler
 is being used, the easiest approach is to insert a "printf"
 call.  For an example, look at <code>common_squeak</code> in
 <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/armv5te/footer.S</code>.
 </p><p>
 At some point you need to ensure that debuggers and profiling work with
 your interpreter.  The easiest way to do this is to simply connect a
 debugger or toggle profiling.  (A future test suite may include some
 tests for this.)
 </p>


 <h2>Other Performance Issues</h2>

 <p>
 The <code>System.arraycopy()</code> function is heavily used.  The
 implementation relies on the bionic C library to provide a fast,
 platform-optimized data copy function for arrays with elements wider
 than one byte.  If you're not using bionic, or your platform does not
 have an implementation of this method, Dalvik will use correct but
 sub-optimal algorithms instead.  For best performance you will want
 to provide your own version.
 </p><p>
 See the comments in <code>dalvik/vm/native/java_lang_System.c</code>
 for details.
 </p>

 <p>
 <address>Copyright &copy; 2009 The Android Open Source Project</address>

 </body>
 </html>
	<html>
	<head>
	<title>Dalvik Porting Guide</title>
	</head>

	<body>
	<h1>Dalvik Porting Guide</h1>

	<p>
	The Dalvik virtual machine is intended to run on a variety of platforms.
	The baseline system is expected to be a variant of UNIX (Linux, BSD, Mac
	OS X) running the GNU C compiler. Little-endian CPUs have been exercised
	the most heavily, but big-endian systems are explicitly supported.
	</p><p>
	There are two general categories of work: porting to a Linux system
	with a previously unseen CPU architecture, and porting to a different
	operating system. This document covers the former.
	</p><p>
	Basic familiarity with the Android platform, source code structure, and
	build system is assumed.
	</p>


	<h2>Core Libraries</h2>

	<p>
	The native code in the core libraries (chiefly <code>libcore</code>,
	but also <code>dalvik/vm/native</code>) is written in C/C++ and is expected
	to work without modification in a Linux environment.
	</p><p>
	The core libraries pull in code from many other projects, including
	OpenSSL, zlib, and ICU. These will also need to be ported before the VM
	can be used.
	</p>


	<h2>JNI Call Bridge</h2>

	<p>
	Most of the Dalvik VM runtime is written in portable C. The one
	non-portable component of the runtime is the JNI call bridge. Simply put,
	this converts an array of integers into function arguments of various
	types, and calls a function. This must be done according to the C calling
	conventions for the platform. The task could be as simple as pushing all
	of the arguments onto the stack, or involve complex rules for register
	assignment and stack alignment.
	</p><p>
	To ease porting to new platforms, the <a href="http://sourceware.org/libffi/">
	open-source FFI library</a> (Foreign Function Interface) is used when a
	custom bridge is unavailable. FFI is not as fast as a native implementation,
	and the optional performance improvements it does offer are not used, so
	writing a replacement is a good first step.
	</p><p>
	The code lives in <code>dalvik/vm/arch/*</code>, with the FFI-based version
	in the "generic" directory. There are two source files for each architecture.
	One defines the call bridge itself:
	</p><p><blockquote>
	<code>void dvmPlatformInvoke(void* pEnv, ClassObject* clazz, int argInfo,
	int argc, const u4* argv, const char* signature, void* func,
	JValue* pReturn)</code>
	</blockquote></p><p>
	This will invoke a C/C++ function declared:
	</p><p><blockquote>
	<code>return_type func(JNIEnv* pEnv, Object* this [, <i>args</i>])<br></code>
	</blockquote>or (for a "static" method):<blockquote>
	<code>return_type func(JNIEnv* pEnv, ClassObject* clazz [, <i>args</i>])</code>
	</blockquote></p><p>
	The role of <code>dvmPlatformInvoke</code> is to convert the values in
	<code>argv</code> into C-style calling conventions, call the method, and
	then place the return type into <code>pReturn</code> (a union that holds
	all of the basic JNI types). The code may use the method signature
	(a DEX "shorty" signature, with one character for the return type and one
	per argument) to determine how to handle the values.
	</p><p>
	The other source file involved here defines a 32-bit "hint". The hint
	is computed when the method's class is loaded, and passed in as the
	"argInfo" argument. The hint can be used to avoid scanning the ASCII
	method signature for things like the return value, total argument size,
	or inter-argument 64-bit alignment restrictions.


	<h2>Interpreter</h2>

	<p>
	The Dalvik runtime includes two interpreters, labeled "portable" and "fast".
	The portable interpreter is largely contained within a single C function,
	and should compile on any system that supports gcc. (If you don't have gcc,
	you may need to disable the "threaded" execution model, which relies on
	gcc's "goto table" implementation; look for the THREADED_INTERP define.)
	</p><p>
	The fast interpreter uses hand-coded assembly fragments. If none are
	available for the current architecture, the build system will create an
	interpreter out of C "stubs". The resulting "all stubs" interpreter is
	quite a bit slower than the portable interpreter, making "fast" something
	of a misnomer.
	</p><p>
	The fast interpreter is enabled by default. On platforms without native
	support, you may want to switch to the portable interpreter. This can
	be controlled with the <code>dalvik.vm.execution-mode</code> system
	property. For example, if you:
	</p><p><blockquote>
	<code>adb shell "echo dalvik.vm.execution-mode = int:portable >> /data/local.prop"</code>
	</blockquote></p><p>
	and reboot, the Android app framework will start the VM with the portable
	interpreter enabled.
	</p>


	<h3>Mterp Interpreter Structure</h3>

	<p>
	There may be significant performance advantages to rewriting the
	interpreter core in assembly language, using architecture-specific
	optimizations. In Dalvik this can be done one instruction at a time.
	</p><p>
	The simplest way to implement an interpreter is to have a large "switch"
	statement. After each instruction is handled, the interpreter returns to
	the top of the loop, fetches the next instruction, and jumps to the
	appropriate label.
	</p><p>
	An improvement on this is called "threaded" execution. The instruction
	fetch and dispatch are included at the end of every instruction handler.
	This makes the interpreter a little larger overall, but you get to avoid
	the (potentially expensive) branch back to the top of the switch statement.
	</p><p>
	Dalvik mterp goes one step further, using a computed goto instead of a goto
	table. Instead of looking up the address in a table, which requires an
	extra memory fetch on every instruction, mterp multiplies the opcode number
	by a fixed value. By default, each handler is allowed 64 bytes of space.
	</p><p>
	Not all handlers fit in 64 bytes. Those that don't can have subroutines
	or simply continue on to additional code outside the basic space. Some of
	this is handled automatically by Dalvik, but there's no portable way to detect
	overflow of a 64-byte handler until the VM starts executing.
	</p><p>
	The choice of 64 bytes is somewhat arbitrary, but has worked out well for
	ARM and x86.
	</p><p>
	In the course of development it's useful to have C and assembly
	implementations of each handler, and be able to flip back and forth
	between them when hunting problems down. In mterp this is relatively
	straightforward. You can always see the files being fed to the compiler
	and assembler for your platform by looking in the
	<code>dalvik/vm/mterp/out</code> directory.
	</p><p>
	The interpreter sources live in <code>dalvik/vm/mterp</code>. If you
	haven't yet, you should read <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/README.txt</code> now.
	</p>


	<h3>Getting Started With Mterp</h3>

	</p><p>
	Getting started:
	<ol>
	<li>Decide on the name of your architecture. For the sake of discussion,
	let's call it <code>myarch</code>.
	<li>Make a copy of <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/config-allstubs</code> to
	<code>dalvik/vm/mterp/config-myarch</code>.
	<li>Create a <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/myarch</code> directory to hold your
	source files.
	<li>Add <code>myarch</code> to the list in
	<code>dalvik/vm/mterp/rebuild.sh</code>.
	<li>Make sure <code>dalvik/vm/Android.mk</code> will find the files for
	your architecture. If <code>$(TARGET_ARCH)</code> is configured this
	will happen automatically.
	<li>Disable the Dalvik JIT. You can do this in the general device
	configuration, or by editing the initialization of WITH_JIT in
	<code>dalvik/vm/Dvm.mk</code> to always be <code>false</code>.
	</ol>
	</p><p>
	You now have the basic framework in place. Whenever you make a change, you
	need to perform two steps: regenerate the mterp output, and build the
	core VM library. (It's two steps because we didn't want the build system
	to require Python 2.5. Which, incidentally, you need to have.)
	<ol>
	<li>In the <code>dalvik/vm/mterp</code> directory, regenerate the contents
	of the files in <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/out</code> by executing
	<code>./rebuild.sh</code>. Note there are two files, one in C and one
	in assembly.
	<li>In the <code>dalvik</code> directory, regenerate the
	<code>libdvm.so</code> library with <code>mm</code>. You can also use
	<code>mmm dalvik/vm</code> from the top of the tree.
	</ol>
	</p><p>
	This will leave you with an updated libdvm.so, which can be pushed out to
	a device with <code>adb sync</code> or <code>adb push</code>. If you're
	using the emulator, you need to add <code>make snod</code> (System image,
	NO Dependency check) to rebuild the system image file. You should not
	need to do a top-level "make" and rebuild the dependent binaries.
	</p><p>
	At this point you have an "all stubs" interpreter. You can see how it
	works by examining <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/cstubs/entry.c</code>. The
	code runs in a loop, pulling out the next opcode, and invoking the
	handler through a function pointer. Each handler takes a "glue" argument
	that contains all of the useful state.
	</p><p>
	Your goal is to replace the entry method, exit method, and each individual
	instruction with custom implementations. The first thing you need to do
	is create an entry function that calls the handler for the first instruction.
	After that, the instructions chain together, so you don't need a loop.
	(Look at the ARM or x86 implementation to see how they work.)
	</p><p>
	Once you have that, you need something to jump to. You can't branch
	directly to the C stub because it's expecting to be called with a "glue"
	argument and then return. We need a C stub "wrapper" that does the
	setup and jumps directly to the next handler. We write this in assembly
	and then add it to the config file definition.
	</p><p>
	To see how this works, create a file called
	<code>dalvik/vm/mterp/myarch/stub.S</code> that contains one line:
	<pre>
	/* stub for ${opcode} */
	</pre>
	Then, in <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/config-myarch</code>, add this below the
	<code>handler-size</code> directive:
	<pre>
	# source for the instruction table stub
	asm-stub myarch/stub.S
	</pre>
	</p><p>
	Regenerate the sources with <code>./rebuild.sh</code>, and take a look
	inside <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/out/InterpAsm-myarch.S</code>. You should
	see 256 copies of the stub function in a single large block after the
	<code>dvmAsmInstructionStart</code> label. The <code>stub.S</code>
	code will be used anywhere you don't provide an assembly implementation.
	</p><p>
	Note that each block begins with a <code>.balign 64</code> directive.
	This is what pads each handler out to 64 bytes. Note also that the
	<code>${opcode}</code> text changed into an opcode name, which should
	be used to call the C implementation (<code>dvmMterp_${opcode}</code>).
	</p><p>
	The actual contents of <code>stub.S</code> are up to you to define.
	See <code>entry.S</code> and <code>stub.S</code> in the <code>armv5te</code>
	or <code>x86</code> directories for working examples.
	</p><p>
	If you're working on a variation of an existing architecture, you may be
	able to use most of the existing code and just provide replacements for
	a few instructions. Look at the <code>vm/mterp/config-*</code> files
	for examples.
	</p>


	<h3>Replacing Stubs</h3>

	<p>
	There are roughly 250 Dalvik opcodes, including some that are inserted by
	<a href="dexopt.html">dexopt</a> and aren't described in the
	<a href="dalvik-bytecode.html">Dalvik bytecode</a> documentation. Each
	one must perform the appropriate actions, fetch the next opcode, and
	branch to the next handler. The actions performed by the assembly version
	must exactly match those performed by the C version (in
	<code>dalvik/vm/mterp/c/OP_*</code>).
	</p><p>
	It is possible to customize the set of "optimized" instructions for your
	platform. This is possible because optimized DEX files are not expected
	to work on multiple devices. Adding, removing, or redefining instructions
	is beyond the scope of this document, and for simplicity it's best to stick
	with the basic set defined by the portable interpreter.
	</p><p>
	Once you have written a handler that looks like it should work, add
	it to the config file. For example, suppose we have a working version
	of <code>OP_NOP</code>. For demonstration purposes, fake it for now by
	putting this into <code>dalvik/vm/mterp/myarch/OP_NOP.S</code>:
	<pre>
	/* This is my NOP handler */
	</pre>
	</p><p>
	Then, in the <code>op-start</code> section of <code>config-myarch</code>, add:
	<pre>
	op OP_NOP myarch
	</pre>
	</p><p>
	This tells the generation script to use the assembly version from the
	<code>myarch</code> directory instead of the C version from the <code>c</code>
	directory.
	</p><p>
	Execute <code>./rebuild.sh</code>. Look at <code>InterpAsm-myarch.S</code>
	and <code>InterpC-myarch.c</code> in the <code>out</code> directory. You
	will see that the <code>OP_NOP</code> stub wrapper has been replaced with our
	new code in the assembly file, and the C stub implementation is no longer
	included.
	</p><p>
	As you implement instructions, the C version and corresponding stub wrapper
	will disappear from the output files. Eventually you will have a 100%
	assembly interpreter. You may find it saves a little time to examine
	the output of your compiler for some of the operations. The
	<a href="porting-proto.c.txt">porting-proto.c</a> sample code can be
	helpful here.
	</p>


	<h3>Interpreter Switching</h3>

	<p>
	The Dalvik VM actually includes a third interpreter implementation: the debug
	interpreter. This is a variation of the portable interpreter that includes
	support for debugging and profiling.
	</p><p>
	When a debugger attaches, or a profiling feature is enabled, the VM
	will switch interpreters at a convenient point. This is done at the
	same time as the GC safe point check: on a backward branch, a method
	return, or an exception throw. Similarly, when the debugger detaches
	or profiling is discontinued, execution transfers back to the "fast" or
	"portable" interpreter.
	</p><p>
	Your entry function needs to test the "entryPoint" value in the "glue"
	pointer to determine where execution should begin. Your exit function
	will need to return a boolean that indicates whether the interpreter is
	exiting (because we reached the "bottom" of a thread stack) or wants to
	switch to the other implementation.
	</p><p>
	See the <code>entry.S</code> file in <code>x86</code> or <code>armv5te</code>
	for examples.
	</p>


	<h3>Testing</h3>

	<p>
	A number of VM tests can be found in <code>dalvik/tests</code>. The most
	useful during interpreter development is <code>003-omnibus-opcodes</code>,
	which tests many different instructions.
	</p><p>
	The basic invocation is:
	<pre>
	$ cd dalvik/tests
	$ ./run-test 003
	</pre>
	</p><p>
	This will run test 003 on an attached device or emulator. You can run
	the test against your desktop VM by specifying <code>--reference</code>
	if you suspect the test may be faulty. You can also use
	<code>--portable</code> and <code>--fast</code> to explictly specify
	one Dalvik interpreter or the other.
	</p><p>
	Some instructions are replaced by <code>dexopt</code>, notably when
	"quickening" field accesses and method invocations. To ensure
	that you are testing the basic form of the instruction, add the
	<code>--no-optimize</code> option.
	</p><p>
	There is no in-built instruction tracing mechanism. If you want
	to know for sure that your implementation of an opcode handler
	is being used, the easiest approach is to insert a "printf"
	call. For an example, look at <code>common_squeak</code> in
	<code>dalvik/vm/mterp/armv5te/footer.S</code>.
	</p><p>
	At some point you need to ensure that debuggers and profiling work with
	your interpreter. The easiest way to do this is to simply connect a
	debugger or toggle profiling. (A future test suite may include some
	tests for this.)
	</p>


	<h2>Other Performance Issues</h2>

	<p>
	The <code>System.arraycopy()</code> function is heavily used. The
	implementation relies on the bionic C library to provide a fast,
	platform-optimized data copy function for arrays with elements wider
	than one byte. If you're not using bionic, or your platform does not
	have an implementation of this method, Dalvik will use correct but
	sub-optimal algorithms instead. For best performance you will want
	to provide your own version.
	</p><p>
	See the comments in <code>dalvik/vm/native/java_lang_System.c</code>
	for details.
	</p>

	<p>
	<address>Copyright © 2009 The Android Open Source Project</address>

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