HELP! * GREY=local LOCAL HTML version of Foils prepared July 6,1995

Foil 61 Multithreading for Interpreted Environments -- 5: HotJava Browser

From Master Foils for Threads with TCE in detail CPS600 Spring Semester95 -- April 1995. by Janusz Niemiec and Geoffrey Fox * See also color IMAGE
The HotJava browser uses a two-level multithreading. The main reason for this choice was dictated by a dual nature of the code execution:
  • The regular mode of execution is to interpret a preecompiled code written in the Java(TM) language. The executable code is a stream of bytecodes, thus the interpretation can be fairly fast.
    • When a higher performance is expected, however, the stream of bytecodes is being translated into the machine code on the fly.
    • Therefore, both the interpreted and compiled code can use the compiled thread support.
    • The Java language is based on a restricted subset of C++, with some added extensions from Objective C.
The main distinction between the HotJava browser and other browsers (Mosaic for example), is that HotJava can acquire any information from a server, not being aware of the information type or structure. The necessary tools for presenting this information will be transferred from the server, linked with the HotJava runtime and started as interpreted or compiled threads.

Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, Syracuse University, npac@npac.syr.edu

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