Alexia Massalin
Encyclopedia
Alexia Massalin is an American computer scientist and programmer. Massalin pioneered the concept of superoptimization
, and designed the Synthesis kernel
, a small kernel with a Unix
compatibility layer that makes heavy use of self-modifying code
for efficiency.
As of October 1992, Massalin works as a research scientist at MicroUnity
.
Superoptimization
Superoptimization is the task of finding the optimal code sequence for a single, loop-free sequence of instructions. While garden-variety compiler optimizations really just improve code , a superoptimizer's goal is to find the optimal sequence at the outset.The term superoptimization was first...
, and designed the Synthesis kernel
, a small kernel with a Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
compatibility layer that makes heavy use of self-modifying code
Self-modifying code
In computer science, self-modifying code is code that alters its own instructions while it is executing - usually to reduce the instruction path length and improve performance or simply to reduce otherwise repetitively similar code, thus simplifying maintenance...
for efficiency.
As of October 1992, Massalin works as a research scientist at MicroUnity
MicroUnity
MicroUnity is a private company located in Santa Clara, California. The company was one of the first promoting Mediaprocessors, that is, CPUs tailored for digital media such as digital video and digital audio streams.-Founders:...
.