Carakan JavaScript Engine

JavaScript engines

The "Linear A" is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">JavaScript - Wikipedia</a> engine used in older versions of Opera. Versions based on the "Core" <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_%28software_development%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Fork %28Software Development%29</a> of Presto, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opera_%28web_browser%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Opera %28Web Browser%29</a> 7.0 through 9.27, use the "Linear B" engine<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presto_%28layout_engine%29#cite_note-1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Presto %28Layout Engine%29 Cite Note 1</a> The "Futhark" engine is used in some versions on the "Core 2" fork of Presto, namely Opera 9.5 to Opera 10.10<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presto_%28layout_engine%29#cite_note-2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Presto %28Layout Engine%29 Cite Note 2</a>. When released it was the fastest engine around, but in 2008 a new generation of JavaScript engines from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Google - Wikipedia</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V8_%28JavaScript_engine%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">V8 %28Javascript Engine%29</a>), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Mozilla</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TraceMonkey" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Tracemonkey</a>) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc." target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Apple Inc.</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SquirrelFish" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Squirrelfish</a>) took one more step, introducing native code generation. Though raw JavaScript performance is of very little meaning in everyday browsing, this opened up for potential heavy computations on the client side and futhark, though still fast and efficient, would not be able to keep up.
In early 2009 Opera presented the next step, Carakan, which will be used in future versions of Opera. It features register-based <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bytecode" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Bytecode</a>, native code generation, automatic object classification and overall performance improvements.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presto_%28layout_engine%29#cite_note-3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Presto %28Layout Engine%29 Cite Note 3</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presto_%28layout_engine%29#cite_note-4" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Presto %28Layout Engine%29 Cite Note 4</a>. Early access in the Opera 10.50 pre-alpha showed that it's as fast as the fastest competitors, being the winner in 2 out of the 3 most used <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmark_%28computing%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Benchmark %28Computing%29</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presto_%28layout_engine%29#cite_note-5" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Presto %28Layout Engine%29 Cite Note 5</a>, though it remains to be seen what the performance of the final version is.