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From: johnson@cs.uiuc.edu (Ralph Johnson)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: intermediate languages
Keywords: code, optimize
Message-ID: <1990Aug09.175917.18448@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us>
Date: 9 Aug 90 17:59:17 GMT
Sender: compilers-sender@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us
Reply-To: Ralph Johnson <johnson@cs.uiuc.edu>
Organization: Compilers Central
Lines: 110
Approved: compilers@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us

My experience is that register transfers are a very nice intermediate
language.  My compiler uses two intermediate languages, abstract syntax trees
for language dependent optimizations, and register transfers for language
independent optimizations.  I learned about RTL from the papers by Davidson
and Fraser.  Also, the GNU compilers use a register transfer language.

Register transfers are very compatible with static single assignment form,
which is a data structure for representing programs developed by a group at
IBM.  You could use SSA without RTL, or RTL without SSA, but I have had good
success using them together.

The end of the message has some references for your reading pleasure.  The
ones on SSA all have Zadeck as a co-author.

Ralph Johnson - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
_______
@InProceedings{alpern88,
  author="Bowen Alpern and Mark N. Wegman and F. Kenneth Zadeck",
  title="Detecting Equality of Variables in Programs",
  booktitle=popl88,
  year=1988,
  pages="1-11"
}
@InProceedings{cytron86,
  author = 	"Ron Cytron and Andy Lowry and Kenneth Zadeck",
  title = 	"Code Motion of Control Structures in High-Level Languages",
  booktitle = 	popl86,
  year = 	1986,
  pages = 	"70-85"
}
@InProceedings{cytron89,
  author = 	"Ron Cytron and Jeanne Ferrante and Barry Rosen
		 and Mark Wegman and Kenneth Zadeck",
  title = 	"An Efficient Method of Computing Static Single Assignment Form",
  booktitle = 	popl89,
  year = 	1989,
  pages = 	"25-35"
}

@ARTICLE{davidson80,
  author="Jack W. Davidson and Christopher W. Fraser",
  title="The Design and Application of a Retargetable Peephole Optimizer",
  journal=toplas,
  volume=2,
  number=2,
  month=apr,
  year=1980,
  pages="191--202"
}

@phdthesis{davidson81,
author="Jack W. Davidson",
title="Simplifying Code Generation Through Peephole Optimizations",
school="University of Arizona",
year="1981"}

@article{davidson84,
author="Jack W. Davidson and Christopher W. Fraser",
title="Code Selection through Object Code Optimization",
journal=toplas,
volume=6,
number=4,
year=1984,
pages="505-526"}

@inproceedings{davidson84a,
author="Jack W. Davidson and Christopher W. Fraser",
title="Automatic Generation of Peephole Optimizations",
booktitle="Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN '84 Symposiom on
Compiler Construction",
year="1984",
pages="111-116"}

@article{davidson84b,
author="Jack W. Davidson and Christopher W. Fraser",
journal="Software - Practice and Experience",
title="Register Allocation and Exhaustive Peephole Optimization",
volume=14,
number=9,
month=sep,
year=1984,
pages="857-865"}

@techreport{davidson85,
author="Jack W. Davidson",
title="Simple Machine Description Grammars",
institution="Department of Computer Science, University of Virgina",
year="1985"}

@InProceedings{davidson86,
  author="Jack W. Davidson",
  title="A Retargetable Instruction Reorganizer",
  booktitle=sigplan86,
  year=1986,
  pages="234-241"
}

@article{davidson87,
author="Jack W. Davidson and Christopher W. Fraser",
title="Automatic Interence and Fast Interpretation of Peephole
Optimization Rules",
journal="Software - Practice and Experience",
volume=17,
number=11,
pages="801-812",
month=nov,
year=1987}
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