Experience with a software-defined machine architecture

Abstract

We have built a system in which the compiler back end and the linker work together to present an abstract machine at a considerably higher level than the actual machine. The intermediate language translated by the back end is the target language of all high-level compilers and is also the only assembly language generally available. This lets us do intermodule register allocation, which would be harder if some of the code in the program had come from a traditional assembler, out of sight of the optimizer. We do intermodule register allocation and pipeline instruction scheduling at link time, using information gathered by the compiler back end. The mechanism for analyzing and modifying the program at link time is also useful in a wide array of instrumentation tools.