A flag simulation strategy based on fusion of semantic trees in binary translation

Binary translation is the emulation of one instruction set by another through translation of code. Sequences of instructions are translated from the source to the target instruction set. The semantic equivalence conversion of instructions is the core of a binary translation system. In order to simulate the behavior of a program on the target platform more accurately, the change of the special state register must be exactly simulated. A flag register simulation strategy based on fusion of semantic trees is presented in this paper. First, it is determined whether the instructions meet some special conditions by the relations among instruction semantic trees. Then these instructions will be fused if the conditions are met. Finally, binary translation is carried out on the fused instructions. The experimental results show that the proposed binary translation strategy is effective. The strategy can not only reduce the problem of code inflation, but also improve the execution efficiency of the translated code.