Google unveiled ago few days (after the release of the latest version of Chrome) technical information about two new code optimization technologies included, that pThey promise to improve the loading times of web pages up to 23% in some cases.
The company detailed the two technologies, Sparkplug calls and "short embedded calls." Both are implemented as part of the V8 engine that Chrome uses to load JavaScript code for web pages. Web pages use JavaScript to activate key functions such as buttons and menus, which means that increasing the speed at which code written in the language runs can provide a significant improvement in overall performance.
It is mentioned that the V8 engine:
“Runs over 78 years of JavaScript code daily… Chrome is now up to 23% faster with the release of a new Sparkplug compiler and short built-in calls, saving our users over 17 years of CPU time every day ». Chrome Product Manager Thomas Nattestad wrote in a blog post.
Code written in programming languages like JavaScript cannot be executed directly in a computer's central processing unit, but must first be converted into so-called low-level code (machine code).
This is a task that Google engineers have sped up with Sparkplug, the first of the two recently detailed technologies. It is a compiler that transforms the JavaScript code of a web page into machine code and in the process, it performs optimizations to help the user's computer load the web page faster.
And even though Chrome already has a compiler that optimizes the code to improve performance, that Existing compiler takes a while to kick in after a user opens a web page, which means there is a window of time in which the web content has been loaded but it's still not running as far as it should. Sparkplug provides a speed boost in that time window so users can experience faster browsing even before Chrome completes all of its optimizations.
The reason why Sparkplug can start to increase performance of the code before the existing Chrome optimization compiler fires is that it is faster. That speed advantage, in turn, is the result of two specific software methods implemented by Google engineers.
First, Sparkplug takes advantage of the fact that Chrome converts code JavaScript of all web pages in an intermediate form called bytecode for ease of processing. Sparkplug performs its optimizations on the byte code instead of the original JavaScript code, which is faster for various technical reasons.
The second method with which Google sped up Sparkplug consisted of skipping one of the steps which typically involves the code optimization process.
The other new technology that contributes to the performance of the new version of Chrome is called short embedded calls. The technology derives its names from builtins, which are snippets of code that run alongside the JavaScript code on a web page and perform various ancillary tasks.
Before the feature's introduction, Chrome stored inline code and JavaScript in randomly selected parts of a computer's memory, slowing down performance due to a technical detail related to the way modern processors are built.
In practice, the technology achieves acceleration by reducing the need for processors to use its prediction mechanism of branches. The branch prediction mechanism is a chip component that guesses the future results of calculations. By using less component, Chrome reduces the risk of the chip making incorrect guesses that delay processing and therefore improve performance.
Source: https://blog.chromium.org