WebAssembly: Performance tinggi di Browser

WebAssembly (WASM) adalah binary instruction format yang berjalan di browser dengan near-native speed. Dikembangkan oleh W3C sejak 2015, sekarang supported oleh semua major browsers. WASM bukan replacement untuk JavaScript tapi complement, memungkinkan port existing C/C++/Rust code ke web. Architecture: stack-based virtual machine, compile ahead-of-time (AOT) atau just-in-time (JIT), linear memory model, dan security via sandboxing. Languages yang compile ke WASM: C/C++ via Emscripten, Rust, Go, AssemblyScript (TypeScript subset), dan Kotlin. Workflow: write code in source language, compile ke .wasm file, load di browser via JavaScript, call WASM functions from JS. Performance advantages: faster execution (2-10x faster than JS untuk computational tasks), predictable performance, efficient binary format, parallel execution. Use cases: game engines (Unity, Unreal exported ke web), image/video processing (Photoshop web, FFmpeg), scientific computing, CAD applications, cryptocurrency mining, machine learning inference, dan compression algorithms. Real-world examples: Google Earth (migrate dari Native Client), Figma (C++ render engine di browser), AutoCAD Web. Integration dengan JavaScript: import WASM modules, call functions bidirectionally, shared memory dengan SharedArrayBuffer. Tools: Emscripten compiler toolchain, wasm-pack untuk Rust, WasmEdge runtime. WASI (WebAssembly System Interface) extends WASM beyond browser ke server-side dengan standardized system calls. Limitations: no direct DOM access (must go through JS), debugging lebih complex, file size bisa besar, async operations tricky. Future: WASM Component Model untuk modularity, garbage collection support, exception handling improvements. WASM democratizes high-performance computing di web, enabling aplikasi yang previously impossible dengan pure JavaScript.