Darjeeling, a feature-rich VM for the resource poor

The programming and retasking of sensor nodes could benefit greatly from the use of a virtual machine (VM) since byte code is compact, can be loaded on demand, and interpreted on a heterogeneous set of devices. The challenge is to ensure good programming tools and a small footprint for the virtual machine to meet the memory constraints of typical WSN platforms. To this end we propose Darjeeling, a virtual machine modelled after the Java VM and capable of executing a substantial subset of the Java language, but designed specifically to run on 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers with 2-10 KB of RAM. The Darjeeling VM uses a 16- rather than a 32-bit architecture, which is more efficient on the targeted platforms. Darjeeling features a novel memory organisation with strict separation of reference from non-referencetypes which eliminates the need for run-time type inspection in the underlying compacting garbage collector. Darjeeling uses a linked stack model that provides light-weight thread...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: SENSYS
• Authors: Niels Brouwers, Koen Langendoen, Peter Corke
• Keywords: Darjeeling, Darjeeling VM, Sensor Networks, SENSYS 2009, Virtual Machine