Dynamic Control of Compile Time Using Vertical Region-Based Compilation( PostScript version, PDF version)
Jaymie Braun
MS thesis, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, May 1998.

This thesis utilizes vertical region-based compilation in a method for dynamically controlling the compile time of a program. Under this model, the compiler attempts to extract a high level of ILP from a program by taking a completely global view of its structure and then selecting the most important portions of the program to be compiled first. As it compiles the regions in order of descending profile frequency, it reduces the aggressiveness of the optimizations applied to the regions in order to meet a user- specified target compilation time. The goal of the technique is to extract nearly all of the performance from the program, which is possible when aggressive optimizations are applied over its entire CFG, while controlling the amount of time spent compiling the program. Under this model, the greatest percentage of time is spent compiling the most important regions, as indicated by the profile information, and very little time is spent compiling the remainder of the program. With this approach, we hope to find the point where increasing the compile time further provides little or no performance benefit to the compiled program. In taking a dynamic approach to this, the compiler is able to adjust the level of optimization applied to each region as it compiles the program and gauges the amount of time required to compile the more important regions.


[ IMPACT Main Page | IMPACT Team Members | IMPACT Publications | Software | FAQ ]