From: Kuba Ober <ober.14@osu.edu>
To: caml-list@yquem.inria.fr
Subject: Re: [Caml-list] ocaml garbage collector_S_
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:41:04 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <17FAD835-1612-4ADA-B6D7-1B84CC52CC38@osu.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20090222112614.GA14473@philou.ch>
> industrial control process, audio processing share a need for others
> pattern of allocation, solved using pools
> of memory range of various size.
I think that there is a big class of realtime signal processing where
dynamic memory allocation is not only uncalled for, but would be a
performance disaster. A good compiler for OCaml (or any other
"dynamic" language) should be able to recognize where static
allocation is applicable. Unfortunately, most compilers do not do
whole-project compilation, they only deal with one file at a time.
There is a large class of programs where memory can be completely
statically allocated, and where you don't even need stack for anything
but storage of function return addresses.
Some time ago I have done a rather bastardized and godawful Lisp
compiler for eZ8 and SX microcontrollers, solely for use in realtime
signal processing. Everything is type-inferred and statical types are
assigned to all variables; there's no runtime polymorphism (the
compiler barfs if any type would not be a constant after all type
equations are derived and simplified). Even then, I can use many high-
level constructs (currying, generic functions, functors) -- they end
up having zero runtime overhead. The approach is perhaps similar to
what ocamldefun would do, it's just taken one step further.
I posit that dynamic memory allocation and garbage collection are a
secondary problem. The primary problem is doing code analysis at such
a level that the amount of dynamic memory allocation is reduced only
to places where it's inherently needed. Same goes for boxing: unless
OCaml would do whole-program compilation, some boxing is inevitable in
light of the compiler being unable to reason about all of the code.
Kuba
prev parent reply other threads:[~2009-02-22 21:41 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2009-02-22 11:26 Philippe Strauss
2009-02-22 14:00 ` [Caml-list] " Jon Harrop
2009-02-22 21:41 ` Kuba Ober [this message]
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