Pushing JavaScript performance

Lars Bak

Abstract

Scalability and performance are the big challenges when implementing a JavaScript engine for a web browser. Google Chrome introduced the new JavaScript engine, V8, specifically to address these problems. Despite the dynamic nature of JavaScript, we found a way to apply classic object-oriented implementation techniques such as on-the-fly code generation, inline caching, precise generational garbage collection, and snapshotting. This talk will discuss these techniques, the lessons learned, and give an outlook on how far we can push scalability and performance for JavaScript.

Lars Bak

Bio

Lars is a software engineer working for Google in Aarhus Denmark. All he has done the last 23 years is implementing virtual machines for object-oriented languages. Here are some: Beta, Self, Strongtalk, Sun’s HotSpot and CLDC HI, OOVM, Smalltalk, and V8. Lars joined Google in the fall of 2006 and he has been responsible for the design and implementation of V8. Bak holds 18 Patents in the field of virtual machines programming.

See also an article “The genius behind Google’s browser” published by Financial Times

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