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A novel term compression scheme and data representation in the BinWAM

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Programming Language Implementation and Logic Programming (PLILP 1994)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 844))

Abstract

In this paper we present the novel term representation of the BinWAM (a simplified WAM engine for executing binary logic programs) and evaluate its impact in BinProlog, a C-emulated system based on the BinWAM and on the mapping of logic programs to binary Prolog introduced in [13]. Terms in the BinWAM are compressed with a new technique called last argument overlapping which takes advantage of an unconventional untagged pointer representation, called tag-on-data. A Cheney-style copy-term algorithm using these term representations is described for BinProlog's fast copy once implementation of findall. While BinProlog's performance is competitive with the best commercial Prolog systems, its implementation is significantly simpler. Our analysis shows that this term representation and a limited amount of instruction folding on top of a reduced basic instruction set make the BinWAM a realistic alternative to its more complex forerunner.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département d'Informatique, Université de Moncton, E1A 3E9, Moncton, N.B., Canada

    Paul Tarau

  2. Institut für Computersprachen, Technische Universität Wien, A-1040, Wien, Austria

    Ulrich Neumerkel

Authors
  1. Paul Tarau
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  2. Ulrich Neumerkel
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Manuel Hermenegildo Jaan Penjam

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Tarau, P., Neumerkel, U. (1994). A novel term compression scheme and data representation in the BinWAM. In: Hermenegildo, M., Penjam, J. (eds) Programming Language Implementation and Logic Programming. PLILP 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 844. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58402-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-58402-1_7

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-58402-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48695-4

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