Understanding the Code Transformation Algorithms' Impact

Abstract

Modern compilers provide several code transformations, which are automatic program transformations applied with the goal of improving the program performance. In this article, we investigate how standard compiler code transformations, performed at the compiler intermediate representation, affect such representation and consequently the performance. Our research targets clang/LLVM, a popular compiler infrastructure. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates how several code transformations change the intermediate representation and consequently improve the target code's performance in terms of runtime.