Using speculation to enhance javascript performance in web applications

Author

Martinsen, Jan Kasper ; Grahn, Hakan ; Isberg, Anders

Volume

17

Issue

2

fYear

2013

fDate

March-April 2013

Firstpage

10

Lastpage

19

Abstract

JavaScript lets developers provide client-side interactivity in Web applications, but because it is sequential, it can´t take advantage of multicore processors. Thread-level speculation (TLS) addresses this issue by enabling the speculation of JavaScript function calls and thus exploits the parallel performance potential multicore processors provide. The authors implemented TLS in the Squirrelfish JavaScript engine, which is part of the WebKit browser environment. They evaluate their approach using 15 popular Web applications on an eight-core computer, and show significant speed-ups without any modifications to the JavaScript source code.

Keywords

Internet; Java; multiprocessing systems; parallel processing; JavaScript function call; JavaScript performance; JavaScript source code; Squirrelfish JavaScript engine; Web application; WebKit browser environment; client-side interactivity; eight-core computer; multicore processor; parallel performance potential; thread-level speculation; Benchmark testing; Engines; Google; Internet; Multicore processing; Program processors; Runtime; JavaScript function calls; multicore processors; parallel performance; thread-level speculation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Internet Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1089-7801

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MIC.2012.146

Filename

6383150