With the Sparkplug compiler, Google is looking to improve JavaScript performance in its Chrome browser. Sparkplug is debuting in Chrome 91. 

Featured as part of Chrome’s V8 JavaScript/WebAssembly engine, Sparkplug is positioned as a “super-fast” non-optimizing compiler. In a bulletin published May 27, Sparkplug is described as part of a compiler pipeline, nestled between the Ignition interpreter and the TurboFan optimizing compiler. 

Sparkplug compiles from bytecode rather than from JavaScript source. In other words, Sparkplug compiles functions that already have been compiled to bytecode; the bytecode compiler already having done work such as variable resolution, determining if parentheses actually are arrow functions, and desugaring destructuring statements.

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