V8 and other modern JavaScript engines get their speed via just-in-time (JIT) compilation of script to native machine code immediately prior to execution. Code is initially compiled by a baseline compiler, which can generate non-optimized machine code quickly. The compiled code is analyzed during runtime and optionally re-compiled dynamically with a more advanced optimizing compiler for peak performance. In V8, this script execution pipeline has a variety of special cases and conditions which require complex machinery to switch between the baseline compiler and two optimizing compilers, Crankshaft and TurboFan.

One of the issues with this approach (in addition to architectural complexity) is that the JITed machine code can consume a significant amount of memory, even if the code is only executed once. In order to mitigate this overhead, the V8 team has built a new JavaScript interpreter, called Ignition, which can replace V8’s baseline compiler, executing code with less memory overhead and paving the way for a simpler script execution pipeline.

With Ignition, V8 compiles JavaScript functions to a concise bytecode, which is between 50% to 25% the size of the equivalent baseline machine code. This bytecode is then executed by a high-performance interpreter which yields execution speeds on real-world websites close to those of code generated by V8’s existing baseline compiler.

In Chrome 53, Ignition will be enabled for Android devices which have limited RAM (512 MB or less), where memory savings are most needed. Results from early experiments in the field show that Ignition reduces the memory of each Chrome tab by around 5%.

Details #

In building Ignition’s bytecode interpreter, the team considered a number of potential implementation approaches. A traditional interpreter, written in C++ would not be able to interact efficiently with the rest of V8’s generated code. An alternative would have been to hand-code the interpreter in assembly code, however given V8 supports nine architecture ports, this would have entailed substantial engineering overhead.

Instead, we opted for an approach which leveraged the strength of TurboFan, our new optimizing compiler, which is already tuned for optimal interaction with the V8 runtime and other generated code. The Ignition interpreter uses TurboFan’s low-level, architecture-independent macro-assembly instructions to generate bytecode handlers for each opcode. TurboFan compiles these instructions to the target architecture, performing low-level instruction selection and machine register allocation in the process. This results in highly optimized interpreter code which can execute the bytecode instructions and interact with the rest of the V8 virtual machine in a low-overhead manner, with a minimal amount of new machinery added to the codebase.

Ignition is a register machine, with each bytecode specifying its inputs and outputs as explicit register operands, as opposed to a stack machine where each bytecode would consume inputs and push outputs on an implicit stack. A special accumulator register is an implicit input and output register for many bytecodes. This reduces the size of bytecodes by avoiding the need to specify specific register operands. Since many JavaScript expressions involve chains of operations which are evaluated from left to right, the temporary results of these operations can often remain in the accumulator throughout the expression’s evaluation, minimizing the need for operations which load and store to explicit registers.

As the bytecode is generated, it passes through a series of inline-optimization stages. These stages perform simple analysis on the bytecode stream, replacing common patterns with faster sequences, remove some redundant operations, and minimize the number of unnecessary register loads and transfers. Together, the optimizations further reduce the size of the bytecode and improve performance.

For further details on the implementation of Ignition, see our BlinkOn talk:

Future #

Our focus for Ignition up until now has been to reduce V8’s memory overhead. However, adding Ignition to our script execution pipeline opens up a number of future possibilities. The Ignition pipeline has been designed to enable us to make smarter decisions about when to execute and optimize code to speed up loading web pages and reduce jank and to make the interchange between V8’s various components more efficient.

Stay tuned for future developments in Ignition and V8.