Efficient execution of switch instructions on a multicore Java co-processor system

Techniques are presented for reducing the performance overhead of switch instructions in a multicore hardware-accelerated Java virtual machine. The bytecode instruction set is extended with two new instructions suitable for hardware implementation and the complicated switch instructions are converted in the software portion of the virtual machine into series of hardware-implemented instructions using these extensions. The performance, logic and memory usage impact of this technique is evaluated and compared with a pure software implementation. Various techniques for performing a key search in lookup switches are also evaluated.