The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 06, 1999
Filed:
Feb. 25, 1997
Michael J Toutonghi, Seattle, WA (US);
Peter Kukol, Monroe, WA (US);
Patrick Dussud, Bellevlle, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for implementing a virtual machine interpreter such as an interpreter for interpreting Java compiled bytecodes. The Java language supports class structures and a hierarchy of such structures. As the Java software virtual machine loads the class file containing the Java bytecodes it allocates a first block, of memory based on the class definition for all dynamic methods implemented by a class hierarchy that includes a base class and any additional classes derived from the base class. The virtual machine instantiates instances of classes within a class hierarchy derived from the base class in other memory blocks by initializing a method table pointer at a base location in that other memory block for each such instance in the class hierarchy. The method table pointer is initialized to point to the first block of memory defining the dynamic methods for the class hierarchy. The interpreter also initializes other data unique to each instance at offsets relative to the method table pointer within the other memory block for said class instance. Practice of the invention enhances the speed with which the virtual machine accesses dynamic methods of objects within the class hierarchy.