Johan Möller
Run-time environment for Plex-C on JVM

The Ericsson AXE-based systems are programmed using an internally
developed language called Plex-C, which is specifically designed for
that purpose. Plex-C is normally compiled to execute on an Ericsson
internal processor architecture, which uses a specialized set of
instructions. A transition to standard processors is currently in
progress. This makes it interesting to examine if Plex-C can be
compiled to execute on the JVM, which would make it processor
independent.

The purpose of the thesis is to examine if parts of the run-time
environment of Plex-C can be translated to Java and if this can be
done so that sufficient performance is obtained. It includes how
language constructions in Plex-C can be translated to Java.

The thesis describes how a limited part of the Plex-C run-time
environment is implemented in Java. Since the AXE is a real-time
system, the performance is very important. Java optimizations are
therefore an important part of the implementation.

It is also described how the JVM system was tested with a benchmark
test. This test is specifically developed by Ericsson for measuring
performance of emulations of their AXE platform.

The test results indicates that the implemented system is a few times
faster than the Ericsson internal processor architecture. But this
performance is still only approximately 50% of the speed of the tested
version of a new Ericsson system that is under development for Tru64
running on Compaq Alpha processors.

To be an interesting replacement for the currently used processor
architecture, the speed of the JVM system would have to be
approximately at least 70% of the finished version of the new tested
Ericsson system. This means that the JVM is most probably not suitable
for further analysis as a replacement for the currently used processor
architecture. Although it might still be useful as a processor
independent test platform.