Embedding parallel bit stream technology into Expat

Parallel bit stream technology is a novel approach to interpret byte stream data and exploit data level parallelism by employing single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) instructions. Parabix, an XML parser embedded with parallel bit stream technology, performs much better than traditional XML parsers that process XML documents in byte-at-a-time fashion. The project attempts to enhance the performance of Expat, an traditional XML parser, by embedding parallel bit stream technology into Expat. Most byte-at-a-time loops are identified and then replaced with bit stream operations. A performance case study is conducted by comparing the performance result between the original Expat and the parallel bit stream version.