Efficient dynamic dispatch without virtual function tables: the SmallEiffel compiler

[Craig Black]

I found this article on the internet.  It concurs with my theories about the 
overhead of virtual function calls.  Here's the abstract:

SmallEiffel is an Eiffel compiler which uses a fast simple type inference 
mechanism to remove most late binding calls, replacing them by static 
bindings. Starting from the system's entry point, it compiles only 
statically living code, which saves compiling and then removing dead code. 
As the whole system is analyzed at compile time, multiple inheritance and 
genericity do not cause any overhead.SmallEiffel features a coding scheme 
which eliminates the need for virtual function tables. Dynamic dispatch is 
implemented without any array access but uses a simple static binary branch 
code. We show that this implementation makes it possible to use modern 
hardware very efficiently. It also allows us to inline more calls even when 
dynamic dispatch is required. Some more dispatch sites are removed after the 
type inference algorithm has been performed, if the different branches of a 
dispatch site lead to the same code.The advantage of this approach is that 
it greatly speeds up execution time and considerably decreases the amount of 
generated code.
-Craig