Itanium: A cautionary tale

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In a perfect world...

Yes, those points may be true in a perfect world.

> The JIT compiler can optimize for a specific CPU, rather than for the lowest denominator in a CPU family

If an application is targeting peak performance then it is reasonable to assume that the end-user has the same goals. It would not be unreasonable to expect that such clients would have top of the line hardware so if you have a product that runs on the PPC you compile it for the top of the line PPC processor; you would not compile it for the least common denominator. You don't gain something from JIT in that case. I have yet to see a JIT compiler that outperforms the top C/C++ compilers, if you have then I would be interested in reading the specifics. So far this claim has been nothing more than blue sky optimism on the part of JIT technology fans.

>A JITd VM can adjust for changing branch prediction results

How may cycles are required to make that judgment as to which is the best branch? Unless this is a very simple decision you would probably spend more cycles than you would gain.

3 is a good point.

Garbage collection is not ideal for a real time application. You still need to deallocate memory using traditional methods so you are not gaining anything with C/C++ there however, long pauses can be unacceptable in cases even with multi-generation garbage collectors. Garbage collect's greatest contribution is it's ability to cover for sloppy coders.

Posted by: balsover   Posted on: 12/07/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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