Reconfigurable Vertical Profiling Framework for the Android Runtime System

Abstract

Dalvik virtual machine in the Android system creates a profiling barrier between VM-space applications and Linux user-space libraries. It is difficult for existing profiling tools on the Android system to definitively identify whether a bottleneck occurred in the application level, the Linux user-space level, or the Linux kernel level. Information barriers exist between VM-space applications and Linux native analysis tools due to runtime virtual machines' dynamic memory allocation mechanism. Furthermore, traditional vertical profiling tools targeted for Java virtual machines cannot be simply applied on the Dalvik virtual machine due to its unique design. The proposed the Reconfigurable Vertical Profiling Framework bridges the information gap and streamlines the hardware-software co-design process for the Android runtime system.