Deterministic execution of java's primitive bytecode operations

Abstract

For the application of Java in realtime and safety critical domains, an analysis of the worst-case execution times of primitive Java operations is necessary. All primitive operations must either execute in constant time or have a reasonable upper bound for their execution time. The difficulties that arise for a Java virtual machine and a Java compiler in this context will be presented here. This includes the implementation of Java's class and interface model, class initialization, monitors and automatic memory management. A new Java virtual machine and compiler that solves these difficulties has been implemented and its performance has been analysed.