Intel Corporation
Using a plurality of conversion tables to implement an instruction set agnostic runtime architecture

Abstract:

A system for an agnostic runtime architecture is disclosed. The system includes a system emulation/virtualization converter, an application code converter, and a system converter wherein the system emulation/virtualization converter and the application code converter implement a system emulation process, and wherein the system converter implements a system conversion process for executing code from a guest image. The system converter further comprises a guest fetch logic component for accessing a plurality of guest instructions, a guest fetch buffer coupled to the guest fetch logic component and a branch prediction component for assembling the plurality of guest instructions into a guest instruction block, and a plurality of conversion tables including a first level conversion table and a second level conversion table coupled to the guest fetch buffer for translating the guest instruction block into a corresponding native conversion block. The system further includes a native cache coupled to the conversion tables for storing the corresponding native conversion block, a conversion look aside buffer coupled to the native cache for storing a mapping of the guest instruction block to corresponding native conversion block. Upon a subsequent request for a guest instruction, the conversion look aside buffer is indexed to determine whether a hit occurred, wherein the mapping indicates the guest instruction has a corresponding converted native instruction in the native cache, and in response to the hit the conversion look aside buffer forwards the translated native instruction for execution.