Latest Seminar

The Programming Languages and Verification Research Group at Macquarie University, Department of Computing is pleased to be hosting the following seminar about the GraalVM technology from Oracle Labs. The seminar is open to non-Macquarie University attendees.

GraalVM Native Images: Start Fast, Tread Lightly

Peter Hofer Oracle Labs Austria

Date and Time:  Friday, May 24 at 1pm

Venue: Jan Hext Seminar Room (room 221, 4 Research Park Drive, formerly the BD Building)

GraalVM is a universal virtual machine for running applications written in Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, R and LLVM-based programming languages. GraalVM removes the isolation between languages and enables interoperability in a shared runtime. It can run either standalone or in the context of OpenJDK, Node.js, Oracle Database, or MySQL.

SubstrateVM is a component of GraalVM which enables you to compile Java (or Scala, Kotlin, Clojure, ...) programs ahead of time into a native executable. SubstrateVM performs a static analysis on the program to determine all reachable code and data and generates machine code and a preinitialized object heap. From that, SubstrateVM produces a native executable that has a small footprint and minimal startup time compared to a traditional Java VM. During execution, SubstrateVM provides automatic memory management, multi-threading, debugging support and direct native code interoperability. Optionally, SubstrateVM can execute dynamic languages such as JavaScript and provides integrated optimizing just-in-time compilation.

This talk gives an overview over GraalVM, describing its modern optimizing compiler Graal and the Truffle language implementation framework, and then focuses on the design, implementation and applications of SubstrateVM with examples.

Read more at graalvm.org

Get involved at github.com/oracle/graal

Publications at graalvm.org/community/publications

About Peter Hofer: Peter is a researcher at Oracle Labs Austria, working on SubstrateVM. His recent work includes an approach for multiple isolated SubstrateVM instances in the same process, tools that make SubstrateVM more convenient to use, and the implementation of the Java Native Interface (JNI) in SubstrateVM. For his Ph.D. studies at the University of Linz, Austria, Peter researched the efficient and effective profiling of calls and lock contention on the Java VM level. During his master’s, Peter spent a semester abroad at the University of Tasmania, Australia.

About Oracle Labs: The mission of Oracle Labs is to identify, explore and transfer new technologies that have the potential to substantially advance Oracle’s Business. Oracle Labs has several locations worldwide with more than 220 employees holding PhD, Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees. Oracle Labs Australia is located in Brisbane and focuses on cyber security and program analysis for vulnerabilities and software reliability. GraalVM research happens primarily in Austria (Linz), Switzerland (Zürich), Czechia (Prague) and California. The GraalVM project offers summer internships for students in a master’s or PhD program who want to join us in the mission to build a universal polyglot virtual machine!