A SIMD programming model for dart, javascript,and other dynamically typed scripting languages

Abstract

It has not been possible to take advantage of the SIMD co-processors available in all x86 and most ARM processors shipping today in dynamically typed scripting languages. Web browsers have become a mainstream platform to deliver large and complex applications with feature sets and performance comparable to native applications, programmers must choose between Dart and JavaScript when writing web programs. This paper introduces an explicit SIMD programming model for Dart and JavaScript, we show that it can be compiled to efficient x86/SSE or ARM/Neon code by both Dart and JavaScript virtual machines achieving a 300%-600% speed increase across a variety of benchmarks. The result of this work is that more sophisticated and performant applications can be built to run in web browsers. The ideas introduced in this paper can also be used in other dynamically typed scripting languages to provide a similarly performant interface to SIMD co-processors.