README.html
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306<body>
307<div class="document" id="libbcc-a-versatile-bitcode-execution-engine-for-mobile-devices">
308<h1 class="title">libbcc: A Versatile Bitcode Execution Engine for Mobile Devices</h1>
309
310<div class="section" id="introduction">
311<h1>Introduction</h1>
312<p>libbcc is an LLVM bitcode execution engine that compiles the bitcode
313to an in-memory executable. libbcc is versatile because:</p>
314<ul class="simple">
315<li>it implements both AOT (Ahead-of-Time) and JIT (Just-in-Time)
316compilation.</li>
317<li>Android devices demand fast start-up time, small size, and high
318performance <em>at the same time</em>. libbcc attempts to address these
319design constraints.</li>
320<li>it supports on-device linking. Each device vendor can supply his or
321her own runtime bitcode library (lib*.bc) that differentiates his or
322her system. Specialization becomes ecosystem-friendly.</li>
323</ul>
324<p>libbcc provides:</p>
325<ul class="simple">
326<li>a <em>just-in-time bitcode compiler</em>, which translates the LLVM bitcode
327into machine code</li>
328<li>a <em>caching mechanism</em>, which can:<ul>
329<li>after each compilation, serialize the in-memory executable into a
330cache file. Note that the compilation is triggered by a cache
331miss.</li>
332<li>load from the cache file upon cache-hit.</li>
333</ul>
334</li>
335</ul>
336<p>Highlights of libbcc are:</p>
337<ul>
338<li><p class="first">libbcc supports bitcode from various language frontends, such as
339Renderscript, GLSL (pixelflinger2).</p>
340</li>
341<li><p class="first">libbcc strives to balance between library size, launch time and
342steady-state performance:</p>
343<ul>
344<li><p class="first">The size of libbcc is aggressively reduced for mobile devices. We
345customize and improve upon the default Execution Engine from
346upstream. Otherwise, libbcc's execution engine can easily become
347at least 2 times bigger.</p>
348</li>
349<li><p class="first">To reduce launch time, we support caching of
350binaries. Just-in-Time compilation are oftentimes Just-too-Late,
351if the given apps are performance-sensitive. Thus, we implemented
352AOT to get the best of both worlds: Fast launch time and high
353steady-state performance.</p>
354<p>AOT is also important for projects such as NDK on LLVM with
355portability enhancement. Launch time reduction after we
356implemented AOT is signficant:</p>
357<pre class="literal-block">
358Apps libbcc without AOT libbcc with AOT
359 launch time in libbcc launch time in libbcc
360App_1 1218ms 9ms
361App_2 842ms 4ms
362Wallpaper:
363 MagicSmoke 182ms 3ms
364 Halo 127ms 3ms
365Balls 149ms 3ms
366SceneGraph 146ms 90ms
367Model 104ms 4ms
368Fountain 57ms 3ms
369</pre>
370<p>AOT also masks the launching time overhead of on-device linking
371and helps it become reality.</p>
372</li>
373<li><p class="first">For steady-state performance, we enable VFP3 and aggressive
374optimizations.</p>
375</li>
376</ul>
377</li>
378<li><p class="first">Currently we disable Lazy JITting.</p>
379</li>
380</ul>
381</div>
382<div class="section" id="api">
383<h1>API</h1>
384<p><strong>Basic:</strong></p>
385<ul class="simple">
386<li><strong>bccCreateScript</strong> - Create new bcc script</li>
387<li><strong>bccRegisterSymbolCallback</strong> - Register the callback function for external
388symbol lookup</li>
389<li><strong>bccReadBC</strong> - Set the source bitcode for compilation</li>
390<li><strong>bccReadModule</strong> - Set the llvm::Module for compilation</li>
391<li><strong>bccLinkBC</strong> - Set the library bitcode for linking</li>
392<li><strong>bccPrepareExecutable</strong> - <em>deprecated</em> - Use bccPrepareExecutableEx instead</li>
393<li><strong>bccPrepareExecutableEx</strong> - Create the in-memory executable by either
394just-in-time compilation or cache loading</li>
395<li><strong>bccGetFuncAddr</strong> - Get the entry address of the function</li>
396<li><strong>bccDisposeScript</strong> - Destroy bcc script and release the resources</li>
397<li><strong>bccGetError</strong> - <em>deprecated</em> - Don't use this</li>
398</ul>
399<p><strong>Reflection:</strong></p>
400<ul class="simple">
401<li><strong>bccGetExportVarCount</strong> - Get the count of exported variables</li>
402<li><strong>bccGetExportVarList</strong> - Get the addresses of exported variables</li>
403<li><strong>bccGetExportFuncCount</strong> - Get the count of exported functions</li>
404<li><strong>bccGetExportFuncList</strong> - Get the addresses of exported functions</li>
405<li><strong>bccGetPragmaCount</strong> - Get the count of pragmas</li>
406<li><strong>bccGetPragmaList</strong> - Get the pragmas</li>
407</ul>
408<p><strong>Debug:</strong></p>
409<ul class="simple">
410<li><strong>bccGetFuncCount</strong> - Get the count of functions (including non-exported)</li>
411<li><strong>bccGetFuncInfoList</strong> - Get the function information (name, base, size)</li>
412</ul>
413</div>
414<div class="section" id="cache-file-format">
415<h1>Cache File Format</h1>
416<p>A cache file (denoted as *.oBCC) for libbcc consists of several sections:
417header, string pool, dependencies table, relocation table, exported
418variable list, exported function list, pragma list, function information
419table, and bcc context. Every section should be aligned to a word size.
420Here is the brief description of each sections:</p>
421<ul class="simple">
422<li><strong>Header</strong> (MCO_Header) - The header of a cache file. It contains the
423magic word, version, machine integer type information (the endianness,
424the size of off_t, size_t, and ptr_t), and the size
425and offset of other sections. The header section is guaranteed
426to be at the beginning of the cache file.</li>
427<li><strong>String Pool</strong> (MCO_StringPool) - A collection of serialized variable
428length strings. The strp_index in the other part of the cache file
429represents the index of such string in this string pool.</li>
430<li><strong>Dependencies Table</strong> (MCO_DependencyTable) - The dependencies table.
431This table stores the resource name (or file path), the resource
432type (rather in APK or on the file system), and the SHA1 checksum.</li>
433<li><strong>Relocation Table</strong> (MCO_RelocationTable) - <em>not enabled</em></li>
434<li><strong>Exported Variable List</strong> (MCO_ExportVarList) -
435The list of the addresses of exported variables.</li>
436<li><strong>Exported Function List</strong> (MCO_ExportFuncList) -
437The list of the addresses of exported functions.</li>
438<li><strong>Pragma List</strong> (MCO_PragmaList) - The list of pragma key-value pair.</li>
439<li><strong>Function Information Table</strong> (MCO_FuncTable) - This is a table of
440function information, such as function name, function entry address,
441and function binary size. Besides, the table should be ordered by
442function name.</li>
443<li><strong>Context</strong> - The context of the in-memory executable, including
444the code and the data. The offset of context should aligned to
445a page size, so that we can mmap the context directly into memory.</li>
446</ul>
447<p>For furthur information, you may read <a class="reference external" href="include/bcc/bcc_cache.h">bcc_cache.h</a>,
448<a class="reference external" href="lib/bcc/CacheReader.cpp">CacheReader.cpp</a>, and
449<a class="reference external" href="lib/bcc/CacheWriter.cpp">CacheWriter.cpp</a> for details.</p>
450</div>
451<div class="section" id="jit-ed-code-calling-conventions">
452<h1>JIT'ed Code Calling Conventions</h1>
453<ol class="arabic">
454<li><p class="first">Calls from Execution Environment or from/to within script:</p>
455<p>On ARM, the first 4 arguments will go into r0, r1, r2, and r3, in that order.
456The remaining (if any) will go through stack.</p>
457<p>For ext_vec_types such as float2, a set of registers will be used. In the case
458of float2, a register pair will be used. Specifically, if float2 is the first
459argument in the function prototype, float2.x will go into r0, and float2.y,
460r1.</p>
461<p>Note: stack will be aligned to the coarsest-grained argument. In the case of
462float2 above as an argument, parameter stack will be aligned to an 8-byte
463boundary (if the sizes of other arguments are no greater than 8.)</p>
464</li>
465<li><p class="first">Calls from/to a separate compilation unit: (E.g., calls to Execution
466Environment if those runtime library callees are not compiled using LLVM.)</p>
467<p>On ARM, we use hardfp. Note that double will be placed in a register pair.</p>
468</li>
469</ol>
470</div>
471</div>
472</body>
473</html>
474
README.rst
1===============================================================
2libbcc: A Versatile Bitcode Execution Engine for Mobile Devices
3===============================================================
4
5
6Introduction
7------------
8
9libbcc is an LLVM bitcode execution engine that compiles the bitcode
10to an in-memory executable. libbcc is versatile because:
11
12* it implements both AOT (Ahead-of-Time) and JIT (Just-in-Time)
13 compilation.
14
15* Android devices demand fast start-up time, small size, and high
16 performance *at the same time*. libbcc attempts to address these
17 design constraints.
18
19* it supports on-device linking. Each device vendor can supply his or
20 her own runtime bitcode library (lib*.bc) that differentiates his or
21 her system. Specialization becomes ecosystem-friendly.
22
23libbcc provides:
24
25* a *just-in-time bitcode compiler*, which translates the LLVM bitcode
26 into machine code
27
28* a *caching mechanism*, which can:
29
30 * after each compilation, serialize the in-memory executable into a
31 cache file. Note that the compilation is triggered by a cache
32 miss.
33 * load from the cache file upon cache-hit.
34
35Highlights of libbcc are:
36
37* libbcc supports bitcode from various language frontends, such as
38 Renderscript, GLSL (pixelflinger2).
39
40* libbcc strives to balance between library size, launch time and
41 steady-state performance:
42
43 * The size of libbcc is aggressively reduced for mobile devices. We
44 customize and improve upon the default Execution Engine from
45 upstream. Otherwise, libbcc's execution engine can easily become
46 at least 2 times bigger.
47
48 * To reduce launch time, we support caching of
49 binaries. Just-in-Time compilation are oftentimes Just-too-Late,
50 if the given apps are performance-sensitive. Thus, we implemented
51 AOT to get the best of both worlds: Fast launch time and high
52 steady-state performance.
53
54 AOT is also important for projects such as NDK on LLVM with
55 portability enhancement. Launch time reduction after we
56 implemented AOT is signficant::
57
58
59 Apps libbcc without AOT libbcc with AOT
60 launch time in libbcc launch time in libbcc
61 App_1 1218ms 9ms
62 App_2 842ms 4ms
63 Wallpaper:
64 MagicSmoke 182ms 3ms
65 Halo 127ms 3ms
66 Balls 149ms 3ms
67 SceneGraph 146ms 90ms
68 Model 104ms 4ms
69 Fountain 57ms 3ms
70
71 AOT also masks the launching time overhead of on-device linking
72 and helps it become reality.
73
74 * For steady-state performance, we enable VFP3 and aggressive
75 optimizations.
76
77* Currently we disable Lazy JITting.
78
79
80
81API
82---
83
84**Basic:**
85
86* **bccCreateScript** - Create new bcc script
87
88* **bccRegisterSymbolCallback** - Register the callback function for external
89 symbol lookup
90
91* **bccReadBC** - Set the source bitcode for compilation
92
93* **bccReadModule** - Set the llvm::Module for compilation
94
95* **bccLinkBC** - Set the library bitcode for linking
96
97* **bccPrepareExecutable** - *deprecated* - Use bccPrepareExecutableEx instead
98
99* **bccPrepareExecutableEx** - Create the in-memory executable by either
100 just-in-time compilation or cache loading
101
102* **bccGetFuncAddr** - Get the entry address of the function
103
104* **bccDisposeScript** - Destroy bcc script and release the resources
105
106* **bccGetError** - *deprecated* - Don't use this
107
108
109**Reflection:**
110
111* **bccGetExportVarCount** - Get the count of exported variables
112
113* **bccGetExportVarList** - Get the addresses of exported variables
114
115* **bccGetExportFuncCount** - Get the count of exported functions
116
117* **bccGetExportFuncList** - Get the addresses of exported functions
118
119* **bccGetPragmaCount** - Get the count of pragmas
120
121* **bccGetPragmaList** - Get the pragmas
122
123
124**Debug:**
125
126* **bccGetFuncCount** - Get the count of functions (including non-exported)
127
128* **bccGetFuncInfoList** - Get the function information (name, base, size)
129
130
131
132Cache File Format
133-----------------
134
135A cache file (denoted as \*.oBCC) for libbcc consists of several sections:
136header, string pool, dependencies table, relocation table, exported
137variable list, exported function list, pragma list, function information
138table, and bcc context. Every section should be aligned to a word size.
139Here is the brief description of each sections:
140
141* **Header** (MCO_Header) - The header of a cache file. It contains the
142 magic word, version, machine integer type information (the endianness,
143 the size of off_t, size_t, and ptr_t), and the size
144 and offset of other sections. The header section is guaranteed
145 to be at the beginning of the cache file.
146
147* **String Pool** (MCO_StringPool) - A collection of serialized variable
148 length strings. The strp_index in the other part of the cache file
149 represents the index of such string in this string pool.
150
151* **Dependencies Table** (MCO_DependencyTable) - The dependencies table.
152 This table stores the resource name (or file path), the resource
153 type (rather in APK or on the file system), and the SHA1 checksum.
154
155* **Relocation Table** (MCO_RelocationTable) - *not enabled*
156
157* **Exported Variable List** (MCO_ExportVarList) -
158 The list of the addresses of exported variables.
159
160* **Exported Function List** (MCO_ExportFuncList) -
161 The list of the addresses of exported functions.
162
163* **Pragma List** (MCO_PragmaList) - The list of pragma key-value pair.
164
165* **Function Information Table** (MCO_FuncTable) - This is a table of
166 function information, such as function name, function entry address,
167 and function binary size. Besides, the table should be ordered by
168 function name.
169
170* **Context** - The context of the in-memory executable, including
171 the code and the data. The offset of context should aligned to
172 a page size, so that we can mmap the context directly into memory.
173
174For furthur information, you may read `bcc_cache.h <include/bcc/bcc_cache.h>`_,
175`CacheReader.cpp <lib/bcc/CacheReader.cpp>`_, and
176`CacheWriter.cpp <lib/bcc/CacheWriter.cpp>`_ for details.
177
178
179
180JIT'ed Code Calling Conventions
181-------------------------------
182
1831. Calls from Execution Environment or from/to within script:
184
185 On ARM, the first 4 arguments will go into r0, r1, r2, and r3, in that order.
186 The remaining (if any) will go through stack.
187
188 For ext_vec_types such as float2, a set of registers will be used. In the case
189 of float2, a register pair will be used. Specifically, if float2 is the first
190 argument in the function prototype, float2.x will go into r0, and float2.y,
191 r1.
192
193 Note: stack will be aligned to the coarsest-grained argument. In the case of
194 float2 above as an argument, parameter stack will be aligned to an 8-byte
195 boundary (if the sizes of other arguments are no greater than 8.)
196
1972. Calls from/to a separate compilation unit: (E.g., calls to Execution
198 Environment if those runtime library callees are not compiled using LLVM.)
199
200 On ARM, we use hardfp. Note that double will be placed in a register pair.
201