Avoiding unconditional jumps by code replication

Abstract

This study evaluates a global optimization technique that avoids unconditional jumps by replicating code. When implemented in the back-end of an optimizing compiler, this technique can be generalized to work on almost all instances of unconditional jumps, including those generated from conditional statements and unstructured loops. The replication method is based on the idea of finding a replacement for each unconditional jump which minimizes the growth in code size. This is achieved by choosing the shortest sequence of instructions as a replacement. Measurements taken from a variety of programs showed that not only the number of executed instructions decreased, but also that the total cache work was reduced (except for small caches) despite increases in code size. Pipelined and superscalar machines may also benefit from an increase in the average basic block size.