Falcon a new JIT compiler in Zing JVM with Ivan Krylov and Artur Pilipenko

Falcon is the new JIT compiler for Zing JVM, which has replaced our C2 compiler. The new compiler is based on the LLVM infrastructure and focuses on improving peak throughput performance. LLVM had originally been used as a static compiler for C/C++. It has taken us a lot of work upstream to teach LLVM how to compile Java code efficiently. In this talk we will discuss the difference between a static compiler for C/C++ and a JIT compiler for Java and will cover GC support, deoptimizations, and Java specific optimizations. Building a new compiler is no small feat. In the talk you will find out why we decided to write a new compiler and will see examples of how Falcon speeds up execution.