TPDE: A Fast Adaptable Compiler Back-End Framework

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Researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have announced TPDE as a fast and adaptable compiler back-end framework.

I wonder if it could be useful to Julia in the future.

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Beat me to it… had the same thought. Since something like this works with LLVM at some level, how much effort would be required to “drop it in?”

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The primary goal is low-latency compilation while maintaining reasonable (-O0 ) code quality, e.g., as baseline compiler for JIT compilation or unoptimized builds.
Currently, TPDE only targets ELF-based x86-64 and AArch64 (Armv8.1) platforms.

TPDE seems to be a research tool/benchmark, not aimed at production.

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not really if -O0 stays where it is relative to -O3 in terms of performance.

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In addition to the limited number of targets, do other unsupported features affect Julia?

  • Targets other than x86-64-v1/AArch64 (ARMv8.1) (Linux) ELF.
  • Code models other than Small-PIC.
  • Scalar types: integer types larger than i64 except i128 (i128 is supported), pointers with non-zero address space, half, bfloat, ppc_fp128, x86_fp80, x86_amx. Code with x86-64 long double needs to be compiled with -mlong-double-64.
  • Vectors: types that are not directly legal on the target (e.g., <32 x i8> on x86-64); icmp/fcmp; pointer element type; getelementptr with vector types; select with vector predicate, integer extension/truncation,
  • select aggregate type other than {i64, i64}.
  • bitcast larger than 64 bit.
  • Atomic operations might use a stronger consistency than required (e.g., always seqcst for atomicrmw).
  • Calling conventions other than the C calling convention (SysV on x86-64, AAPCS on AArch64).
  • fp128: fneg, fcmp one/ueq, many intrinsics.
  • Computed goto (blockaddress, indirectbr).
  • landingpad with non-empty filter clause.
  • Many intrinsics, and some intrinsics are only implemented for commonly used types (e.g., llvm.cttz only for 8/16/32/64-bit).
  • IFuncs.
  • Various forms of constant expressions in global initializers.
  • Non-empty inline assembly.
  • Full asynchronous unwind info (frame info only correct in prologue and at call sites).
  • Several corner cases that we didn’t encounter so far.