A typical implementation of an object store upon a conventional architecture sacrifices a good deal of performance in emulation overheads. In this paper we describe the design of a high-performance hardware-based object memory. This work forms a part of the Mushroom Project, which is constructing a high-performance architecture tailored for symbolic processing and especially object-oriented languages.
Alternatives in the design of an object-based memory system are presented. Each alternative is analysed using the results of simulations based on memory reference traces taken from a Smalltalk-80 system. The best of the alternatives is chosen and used as the basis for the Mushroom memory system.
The principal areas described and evaluated are:
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