Go 1.8, the next version of Google’s open source language, is moving toward general availability, with a release candidate featuring improvements in compilation and HTTP. The final Version 1.8 is due in February.
According to draft notes, the release candidate features updates to the compiler back end for more efficient code. The back end, initially developed for Go 1.7 for 64-bit x86 systems, is based on static single assignment (SSA) form to generate more efficient code and to serve as a platform for optimizations like bounds check elimination. It now works on all architectures.
« The new back end reduces the CPU time required by our benchmark programs by 20 to 30 percent on 32-bit ARM systems, » the release notes say. « For 64-bit x86 systems, which already used the SSA back end in Go 1.7, the gains are a more modest 0 to 10 percent. Other architectures will likely see improvements closer to the 32-bit ARM numbers. «
Version 1.8 also introduces a new compiler front end as a foundation for future performance enhancements, and it features shorter garbage collection pauses by eliminating « stop the world » stack rescanning.
