Robust Foundation for Binary Translation of X86 Code( PostScript version, PDF version)
Liang-Chuan Hsu
Phd thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois, Urbana IL, June 1997
Software venders are unwilling to compile new software for
a new processor until the marketplace of the processor becomes
large enough. As a result, utilization of most new hardware
features is delayed. Binary Translation allows programs
compiled for older machines to take advantage of all the new
features that have since been added. Binary translation can
help introduce new instruction set architecture (ISA) features
to the software base.
This dissertation develops a solid foundation for binary
translation. A hybrid approach to resolving all of branch
target problems is proposed and evaluated. It attempts to
resolve as many targets as possible statically, and uses a
run-time support when the target cannot be resolved at
translation time.
Self-modifying code is one of the major hurdles to binary
translation. This dissertation describes a self-modifying
code detector to prevent the binary translator from translating
self-modifying code. In order to illustrate the usefulness of
the binary translation framework, an optimizer that improves the
load time of executable is designed and implemented in the
framework.
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