Lightweight Compilation of Method Invocation Bytecodes in Java

Method invocation bytecodes are a fundamental aspect of class methods and object interactions in object-oriented programming languages. However, their traditional interpretation and compilation techniques often introduce significant overhead, impacting the execution efficiency of applications. Template-based Just-In-Time compilation is a lightweight approach in Eclipse OpenJ9 that leverages pre-defined templates to convert frequently executed code fragments into machine code, significantly cutting down startup times. This paper extends the template-based approach to compilation of method invocation bytecodes in Java, aimed at reducing the overhead associated with compiling methods and improving the overall runtime performance. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a prototype implementation is developed and evaluated against the industry-standard DaCapo benchmark suite. The evaluation reveals promising results, showcasing notable performance gains in terms of reduced memory footprint, faster startup times, and improved overall execution efficiency. This research contributes to the ongoing efforts in enhancing the performance of Java bytecodes' execution and eventually the Java applications. The insights gained from this study are expected to inspire further research in the domain of bytecode compilation, ultimately benefiting the broader language development community.