Transparent microprogramming in support of abstract type oriented dynamic vertical migration

Migration of functionality into microcode for the purposes of performance improvement and increased security may be oriented toward the migration of abstract data types. This provides a model of migration consistent with current models of machine architecture. An advantage is that information in making migration decisions can be drawn from the programmer's model of his problem as encapsulated in the data types in the program. In addition, the migration can be sensitive to changes in type visibility in various execution environments of the program. The paper discusses language aspects of abstract type oriented migration (ATOM) and details a working prototype implementation. Ada is used as the source language in the description of ATOM but C is used in the prototype.