Lance is a software platform for developing C compilers. It includes a C frontend, optimization passes on its intermediate representation (IR), and a backend interface for code generation. The IR is a 3-address code that can be optimized and instrumented. Lance provides classical optimizations, control/data flow graphs, and verification of new passes against reference code. Its modular design allows new passes and backends to be added.
Lance is a software platform for developing C compilers. It includes a C frontend, optimization passes on its intermediate representation (IR), and a backend interface for code generation. The IR is a 3-address code that can be optimized and instrumented. Lance provides classical optimizations, control/data flow graphs, and verification of new passes against reference code. Its modular design allows new passes and backends to be added.
Lance is a software platform for developing C compilers. It includes a C frontend, optimization passes on its intermediate representation (IR), and a backend interface for code generation. The IR is a 3-address code that can be optimized and instrumented. Lance provides classical optimizations, control/data flow graphs, and verification of new passes against reference code. Its modular design allows new passes and backends to be added.
Lance is a software platform for developing C compilers. It includes a C frontend, optimization passes on its intermediate representation (IR), and a backend interface for code generation. The IR is a 3-address code that can be optimized and instrumented. Lance provides classical optimizations, control/data flow graphs, and verification of new passes against reference code. Its modular design allows new passes and backends to be added.
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Principles of Compiler Design:
Tutorial 9 Name : PRN :
Q. Make a report on LANCE Re-targetable C Compiler.
1. Introduction Lance is a software platform for fast implementation of C compilers. It includes a C frontend, a set of code optimization passes on IR level, a C++ library for IR analysis and manipulation, and a backend interface for assembly code generation.
LANCE is mainly intended for C compiler development for embedded processors. The system has been applied both in academic and industrial compiler development projects for a variety of different target architectures.
Main features: ANSI C frontend (C89) Extensible, modular compiler architecture Executable three address code IR Library of standard ("Dragon Book style") IR optimizations C++ API for IR access and analysis Visualization of control and data flow graphs Backend interface for code selection Code instrumentation interface Free licensing for research purposes
2. Software Architecture LANCE consists of a C++ library and compiler tools. The C++ library provides an API for IR access and manipulation. In addition, it comprises numerous algorithms and data structures needed for building compiler tools, ranging from simple structures (e.g. lists, stacks, graphs) to advanced code analysis routines (e.g. control and data flow analysis). All LANCE tools are built on the C++ library. They operate on a common intermediate representation in the "IR-C" format in a plug-and-play fashion. While LANCE already comprises a set of IR optimization tools, new IR transformations can be easily added anytime.
3.ANSI C Frontend LANCE comprises a frontend for full ANSI C (C89 language version). It requires a separate C pre-processor , though, and standard header files and libraries are NOT included. Normally, these components are reused from the GNU C compiler. LANCE's ANSI C frontend source code has been automatically generated by means of the attribute grammar compiling system OX (available from: ftp://ftp.cs.iastate.edu/pub/ox/). OX reads an attribute grammar and generates lex and yacc source files. The use of generated C frontend code significantly reduces the coding effort and improves reliability. The C frontend is called via the "compile" shell command. It translates each C source file into a separate IR file. 4. Intermediate Representation (IR) LANCE uses a three address code intermediate representation (IR). Complex expressions are decomposed into three address code by means of insertion of temporary variables. High-level control flow statements (loops, switch etc.) are replaced by equivalent jump constructs close to the assembly level.
The IR can be dumped to a file in low level ANSI C syntax. This implies a clear and easy-to-learn IR semantics (subset of C semantics) and enables executability of the IR, which enables verification of new IR transformation passes and fine-grained code instrumentation for profiling purposes. 5. IR-level code optimization engines LANCE includes a number of both classical ("Dragon Book") and advanced IR- level code optimization engines. They are implemented as separate tools and can be combined and iterated by a predefined IR optimization script that can be modified or extended to optimize code quality for a specific class of target machines or to plug in new optimization tools. Currently, the following optimization engines are available:
constant folding constant propagation copy propagation dead code elimination common subexpression elimination function inlining induction variable elimination jump optimization loop invariant code motion SSA conversion Reassociation
6. Flow Graphs (GFG, DFG)
The LANCE C++ library comprises functions for control and data flow analysis. They allow for visualization of control and data flow graphs, e.g. for debugging purposes. LANCE emits flow graphs per C function in a textual format that can be visualized e.g. with the VCG graph display tool. 7. Verification LANCE permits plug-and-play integration of new IR transformation and optimization passes. Naturally, such new passes need to be extensively verified. LANCE supports verification of any IR transformation by means of its executable IR format, without the need for a compiler backend or an instruction set simulator. This is achieved with the methodology illustrated below: Both an original reference IR code of a test application and the IR code generated from it by a new transformation are compiled with a native C compiler (CC) for the development host. The resulting binaries are checked for equivalence by execution for a set of test input data. Deviations in the outputs indicate bugs in the new IR transformation.
8. API for code instrumentation at the IR level
LANCE includes an API for code instrumentation at the IR level, which supports implementation of advanced application code profiling tools. The API permits the automatic placement of user-defined probe function calls in between three address code IR statements generated by the C frontend. The instrumented code can be compiled and executed like the original C application program. It retains the original program semantics, but collects dynamic execution statistics as a side effect. For instance, probe functions may be used to accurately count the dynamic frequency of C operations, to determine variable word lengths, or to monitor memory accesses. As opposed to traditional source code profilers, IR-level profiling leads to better observability of program characteristics without a large increase in execution time.
9. Backend Interface
LANCE can convert its three address code IR into a tree data structure that is compatible to popular code generator generator tools like iburg and olive. This feature facilitates compiler retargeting, as the designer can directly start by writing a target- specific code selector specification.
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