What is JIT Compiler?

Last updated 3 months ago

The Just In Time Compiler (JIT) concept and more generally is well known concept in many languages besides Java (.Net, Lua, JRuby).
In order to explain what is JIT Compiler is, lets start with a definition of compiler concept. According to wikipedia compiler is "a computer program that transforms the source language into another computer language (the target language)".
We are all familiar with static java compiler (javac) that compiles human readable .java files to a byte code that can be interpreted by JVM .class files. Then what does JIT compiler compile?.
According to most researches, 80% of execution time is spent in executing 20% of code. It would be great if there was a way to determine those 20% of code and to optimize them. That's exactly what JIT does, during runtime it gathers statistics, finds the "hot" code and compiles it from JVM interpreted bytecode (that is stored in .class files) to a native code that is executed directly by Operating System and heavily optimizes it. Smallest compilation unit is single method. Compilation and statistics gathering is done in parallel to program execution by special threads. During statistics gathering the compiler makes hypothesis about code function and as the time passes tries to prove or to disprove them. If the hypothesis is dis-proven the code is de-optimized and recompiled again.
The name "Hotspot" of Sun (Oracle) JVM is chosen because of the ability of this Virtual Machine to find "hot" spots in code.

Let's look closely at more optimizations done by JIT.
- Inline methods, instead of calling method on an instance of the object it copies the method to caller code. The hot methods should be located as close to the caller as possible to prevent any overhead.
- Eliminate locks if monitor is not reachable from other threads.
- Replace interface with direct method calls for method implemented only once to eliminate calling of virtual functions overhead.
- Join adjacent synchronized blocks on the same object.
- Eliminate dead code.
- Drop memory write for non-volatile variables
- Remove prechecking NullPointerException and IndexOutOfBoundsException.
When the Java VM invokes a Java method, it uses an invoker method as specified in the method block of the loaded class object.
The Java VM has several invoker methods, for example, a different invoker is used if the method is synchronized or if it is a native method.
The JIT compiler uses its own invoker.
Sun production releases check the method access bit for value ACC_MACHINE_COMPILED to notify the interpreter that the code for this method has already been compiled and stored in the loaded class.
JIT compiler compiles the method block into native code for this method and stores that in the code block for that method.
Once the code has been compiled the ACC_MACHINE_COMPILED bit, which is used on the Sun platform, is set.

Last updated 3 months ago

The Just In Time Compiler (JIT) concept and more generally is well known concept in many languages besides Java (.Net, Lua, JRuby).
In order to explain what is JIT Compiler is, lets start with a definition of compiler concept. According to wikipedia compiler is "a computer program that transforms the source language into another computer language (the target language)".
We are all familiar with static java compiler (javac) that compiles human readable .java files to a byte code that can be interpreted by JVM .class files. Then what does JIT compiler compile?.
According to most researches, 80% of execution time is spent in executing 20% of code. It would be great if there was a way to determine those 20% of code and to optimize them. That's exactly what JIT does, during runtime it gathers statistics, finds the "hot" code and compiles it from JVM interpreted bytecode (that is stored in .class files) to a native code that is executed directly by Operating System and heavily optimizes it. Smallest compilation unit is single method. Compilation and statistics gathering is done in parallel to program execution by special threads. During statistics gathering the compiler makes hypothesis about code function and as the time passes tries to prove or to disprove them. If the hypothesis is dis-proven the code is de-optimized and recompiled again.
The name "Hotspot" of Sun (Oracle) JVM is chosen because of the ability of this Virtual Machine to find "hot" spots in code.

Let's look closely at more optimizations done by JIT.
- Inline methods, instead of calling method on an instance of the object it copies the method to caller code. The hot methods should be located as close to the caller as possible to prevent any overhead.
- Eliminate locks if monitor is not reachable from other threads.
- Replace interface with direct method calls for method implemented only once to eliminate calling of virtual functions overhead.
- Join adjacent synchronized blocks on the same object.
- Eliminate dead code.
- Drop memory write for non-volatile variables
- Remove prechecking NullPointerException and IndexOutOfBoundsException.
When the Java VM invokes a Java method, it uses an invoker method as specified in the method block of the loaded class object.
The Java VM has several invoker methods, for example, a different invoker is used if the method is synchronized or if it is a native method.
The JIT compiler uses its own invoker.
Sun production releases check the method access bit for value ACC_MACHINE_COMPILED to notify the interpreter that the code for this method has already been compiled and stored in the loaded class.
JIT compiler compiles the method block into native code for this method and stores that in the code block for that method.
Once the code has been compiled the ACC_MACHINE_COMPILED bit, which is used on the Sun platform, is set.