The influence of the object-oriented language model on a supporting architecture

The MUSHROOM architecture is designed to efficiently support dynamic object-oriented languages such as Smalltalk. The authors describe the architecture, and how the object-oriented model of computation and the provision of a sophisticated computer led to various simplifications in the design and implementation of the architecture. Two particular features of the object-oriented model have been exploited in the architecture. Freedom of object identifier selection, allows for straightforward and efficient implementation in software of virtual-to-real address translation and for efficient object allocation, and the absence of address aliasing allows simple, virtually addressed caches to be used. A prototype implementation of this architecture is currently being commissioned.