RISC-V is modular and extensible: bridging between differentiated implementations.
In the ever-evolving landscape of RISC-V ISA, binary translation emerges as a critical enabler for its continuous evolution and innovation, effectively managing any potential fragmentation resulting from new extensions. This can ensure seamless backward compatibility and accelerate RISC-V adoption by offering effortless migration from legacy architectures.
Binary translation is a well-established technology with widespread high-profile implementations. Recognized as an infrastructure or “public utility,” it demands open-source accessibility to maximize its benefits for the entire RISC-V community. We recently launched a non-profit initiative to spearhead developing and ongoing stewardship of a free and open multi-ISA binary translation framework.
This presentation provides a progress update on the Open Binary Translation Alliance, summarizes the proposed architecture of the open-source binary translation framework, and showcases a proof-of-concept implementation running on RISC-V.
Bio
Dr. Philipp Tomsich is the Chief Technologist and Founder of VRULL, an engineering company focused on the tools and software ecosystems for building, enabling, and optimizing next-generation silicon solutions for ARMv8 and RISC-V architectures.
Dr. Tomsich has a background in runtime systems (including Java VMs, compilers, operating systems kernels, and static code analysis), high-assurance applications, secure/trusted boot, and embedded hardware. He has worked on languages and compilers for multi-core systems for over twenty years and led multiple engineering projects for high-assurance government applications.
After starting as a compiler engineer at Silicon Graphics Inc., he worked as a banking and government IT consultant for several years. He held teaching and research roles at the Vienna University of Technology, where he graduated with a degree and a doctorate in Computer Science. Before VRULL, he founded and bootstrapped Theobroma Systems, a Software and Hardware engineering company offering tailored & standard modular solutions for high-assurance computing (later acquired by Cherry GmbH).
Philipp today supports the RISC-V mission as the Chair of the Applications & Tools (formerly: “Software”) Horizontal Committee. In this function, he oversees the software ecosystem outreach, standardization of Platforms, and the development of performance modeling, dynamic instrumentation, and analysis tools for RISC-V. He also serves on the Board of Directors of RISC-V (as Elected Representative for the Strategic Membership Tier), continuing to drive the empowerment of the software ecosystem perspective within RISC-V and work towards making RISC-V the premier platform for software innovation. Recently, Dr. Tomsich was chosen as the Vice-Chair for the Technical Steering Committee at RISC-V International; this puts him at the center of the evolution and reform of the RISC-V standards development processes.