| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> | 
 | 2 | <html><head><title>Open LLVM Projects</title></head> | 
 | 3 |  | 
 | 4 | <body bgcolor=white> | 
 | 5 | <center><h1><font size=7>Open LLVM Projects</font></h1></center> | 
 | 6 |  | 
 | 7 | <ul> | 
 | 8 |   <li><a href="#what">What is this?</a> | 
 | 9 |   <li><a href="#improving">Improving the current system</a> | 
 | 10 |   <ol> | 
 | 11 |     <li><a href="#glibc">Port glibc to LLVM</a> | 
 | 12 |     <li><a href="#NightlyTest">Improving the Nightly Tester</a> | 
 | 13 |     <li><a href="#programs">Compile programs with the LLVM Compiler</a> | 
 | 14 |     <li><a href="#llvm_ir">Extend the LLVM intermediate representation</a> | 
 | 15 |     <li><a href="#misc_imp">Miscellaneous Improvements</a> | 
 | 16 |   </ol> | 
 | 17 |  | 
 | 18 |   <li><a href="#new">Adding new capabilities to LLVM</a> | 
 | 19 |   <ol> | 
 | 20 |     <li><a href="#pointeranalysis">Pointer and Alias Analysis</a> | 
 | 21 |     <li><a href="#profileguided">Profile Guided Optimization</a> | 
 | 22 |     <li><a href="#xforms">New Transformations and Analyses</a> | 
 | 23 |     <li><a href="#x86be">X86 Back-end Improvements</a> | 
 | 24 |     <li><a href="#misc_new">Miscellaneous Additions</a> | 
 | 25 |   </ol> | 
 | 26 | </ul> | 
 | 27 |  | 
 | 28 | <br><br> | 
 | 29 |  | 
 | 30 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | 31 | <table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 32 | <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 33 | <a name="what">What is this? | 
 | 34 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 35 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | 36 |  | 
 | 37 | This document is meant to be a sort of "big TODO list" for LLVM.  Each project | 
 | 38 | in this document is something that would be useful for LLVM to have, and would | 
 | 39 | also be a great way to get familiar with the system.  Some of these projects are | 
 | 40 | small and self-contained, which may be implemented in a couple of days, others | 
 | 41 | are larger.  Several of these projects may lead to interesting research projects | 
 | 42 | in their own right.  In any case, we welcome all contributions.<p> | 
 | 43 |  | 
 | 44 | If you are thinking about tackling one of these projects, please send a mail to | 
 | 45 | the <a href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM | 
 | 46 | Developer's</a> mailing list, so that we know the project is being worked on. | 
 | 47 | Additionally this is a good way to get more information about a specific project | 
 | 48 | or to suggest other projects to add to this page.<p> | 
 | 49 |  | 
 | 50 |  | 
 | 51 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | 52 | </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 53 | <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 54 | <a name="improving">Improving the current system | 
 | 55 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 56 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | 57 |  | 
 | 58 | Improvements to the current infrastructure are always very welcome and tend to | 
 | 59 | be fairly straight-forward to implement.  Here are some of the key areas that | 
 | 60 | can use improvement...<p> | 
 | 61 |  | 
 | 62 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 63 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 64 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 65 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 66 | <a name="glibc">Port glibc to LLVM | 
 | 67 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 68 |  | 
 | 69 | It would be very useful to <a | 
 | 70 | href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/porting.html">port</a> <a | 
 | 71 | href="http://www.gnu.org/software/glibc/">glibc</a> to LLVM.  This would allow a | 
 | 72 | variety of interprocedural algorithms to be much more effective in the face of | 
 | 73 | library calls.  The most important pieces to port are things like the string | 
 | 74 | library and the <tt>stdio</tt> related functions... low-level system calls like | 
 | 75 | '<tt>read</tt>' should stay unimplemented in LLVM.<p> | 
 | 76 |  | 
 | 77 |  | 
 | 78 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 79 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 80 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 81 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 82 | <a name="NightlyTest">Improving the Nightly Tester | 
 | 83 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 84 |  | 
 | 85 | The <a href="/testresults/">Nightly Tester</a> is a simple perl script (located | 
 | 86 | in utils/NightlyTest.pl) which runs every night to generate a daily report.  It | 
 | 87 | could use the following improvements:<p> | 
 | 88 |  | 
 | 89 | <ol> | 
 | 90 | <li>Olden timings - Time the compilation and execution times for the Olden | 
 | 91 |     benchmark suite, keeping track of these values over time. | 
 | 92 |  | 
 | 93 | <li>Graphs - It would be great to have gnuplot graphs to keep track of how the | 
 | 94 |     tree is changing over time.  We already gather a several statistics, it | 
 | 95 |     just neccesary to add the script-fu to gnuplotize it. | 
 | 96 |  | 
 | 97 | <li>Regression tests - We should run the regression tests in addition to the | 
 | 98 |     program tests... | 
 | 99 | </ol><p> | 
 | 100 |  | 
| Chris Lattner | 1b36004 | 2003-02-07 19:25:35 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 101 |  | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 102 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 103 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 104 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 105 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 106 | <a name="programs">Compile programs with the LLVM Compiler | 
 | 107 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 108 |  | 
 | 109 | We are always looking for new testcases and benchmarks for use with LLVM.  In | 
 | 110 | particular, it is useful to try compiling your favorite C source code with LLVM. | 
 | 111 | If it doesn't compile, try to figure out why or report it to the <a | 
 | 112 | href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmbugs/">llvm-bugs</a> list.  If you | 
 | 113 | get the program to compile, it would be extremely useful to convert the build | 
 | 114 | system to be compatible with the LLVM Programs testsuite so that we can check it | 
| Chris Lattner | 1b36004 | 2003-02-07 19:25:35 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 115 | into CVS and the automated tester can use it to track progress of the | 
 | 116 | compiler.<p> | 
 | 117 |  | 
 | 118 | When testing a code, try running it with a variety of optimizations, and with | 
 | 119 | all the back-ends: CBE, llc, and lli.<p> | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 120 |  | 
 | 121 |  | 
 | 122 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 123 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 124 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 125 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 126 | <a name="llvm_ir">Extend the LLVM intermediate representation | 
 | 127 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 128 |  | 
 | 129 | <ol> | 
 | 130 | <li>Transform <tt>setjmp</tt> and <tt>longjmp</tt> calls to use the LLVM | 
 | 131 |     <tt>invoke</tt> mechanism. | 
 | 132 | <li>Add support for a volatile attribute on loads and stores | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 133 | <li>Add a new conditional move instruction: <tt>X = select bool Cond, Y, Z</tt> | 
| Misha Brukman | 3d87b42 | 2003-03-08 23:59:05 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 134 | <li>Add support for platform independent prefetch support.  The GCC <a | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 135 |     href="http://gcc.gnu.org/projects/prefetch.html">prefetch project</a> page | 
 | 136 |     has a good survey of the prefetching capabilities of a variety of modern | 
 | 137 |     processors. | 
 | 138 | </ol> | 
 | 139 |  | 
 | 140 |  | 
 | 141 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 142 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 143 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 144 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 145 | <a name="misc_imp">Miscellaneous Improvements | 
 | 146 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 147 |  | 
 | 148 | <ol> | 
| Chris Lattner | 8bde96f | 2003-05-06 20:47:11 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 149 | <li>Someone needs to look into getting the <tt>ranlib</tt> tool to index LLVM | 
 | 150 |     bytecode files, so that linking in .a files is not hideously slow.  They | 
 | 151 |     would also then have to implement the reader for this index in | 
 | 152 |     <tt>gccld</tt>.<br> | 
 | 153 |  | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 154 | <li>Improve the efficiency of the bytecode loader/writer, allow streaming lazy | 
 | 155 |     loading of functions from the bytecode (for use by the JIT, for example)<br> | 
| Chris Lattner | 99df25f | 2003-04-28 03:42:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 156 | <li>Rework the PassManager to be more flexible | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 157 | <li>Some transformations and analyses only work on reducible flow graphs.  It | 
 | 158 | would be nice to have a transformation which could be "required" by these passes | 
 | 159 | which makes irreducible graphs reducible.  This can easily be accomplished | 
 | 160 | through code duplication.  See <a | 
 | 161 | href="http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/janssen97making.html">Making Graphs Reducible | 
 | 162 | with Controlled Node Splitting</a> and perhaps <a | 
 | 163 | href="http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/262004.262005">Nesting of Reducible and | 
 | 164 | Irreducible Loops</a>. | 
 | 165 | </ol> | 
 | 166 |  | 
 | 167 |  | 
 | 168 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | 169 | </ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 170 | <tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 171 | <a name="new">Adding new capabilities to LLVM | 
 | 172 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 173 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | 174 |  | 
 | 175 | Sometimes creating new things is more fun that improving existing things.  These | 
 | 176 | projects tend to be more involved and perhaps require more work, but can also be | 
 | 177 | very rewarding.<p> | 
 | 178 |  | 
 | 179 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 180 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 181 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 182 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 183 | <a name="pointeranalysis">Pointer and Alias Analysis | 
 | 184 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 185 |  | 
| Chris Lattner | 09cea35 | 2003-07-25 18:05:38 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 186 | We have a <a href="AliasAnalysis.html">strong base for development</a> of both | 
 | 187 | pointer analysis based optimizations as well as pointer analyses themselves.  It | 
 | 188 | seems natural to want to take advantage of this...<p> | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 189 |  | 
 | 190 | <ol> | 
 | 191 | <li>Implement a flow-sensitive context-sensitive alias analysis algorithm<br> | 
 | 192 |   - Pick one of the somewhat efficient algorithms, but strive for maximum | 
 | 193 |     precision | 
| Chris Lattner | f56703b | 2003-06-25 14:31:06 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 194 | <li>Implement a flow-sensitive context-insensitive alias analysis algorithm<br> | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 195 |   - Just an efficient local algorithm perhaps? | 
 | 196 |  | 
 | 197 | <li>Implement an interface to update analyses in response to common code motion | 
 | 198 |     transformations | 
 | 199 | <li>Implement alias analysis based optimizations: | 
 | 200 |   <ul> | 
 | 201 |   <li>Dead store elimination | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 202 |   </ul> | 
 | 203 | </ol> | 
 | 204 |  | 
 | 205 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 206 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 207 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 208 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 209 | <a name="profileguided">Profile Guided Optimization | 
 | 210 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 211 |  | 
 | 212 | We are getting to the point where we really need a unified infrastructure for | 
 | 213 | profile guided optimizations.  It would be wonderful to be able to write profile | 
 | 214 | guided transformations which can be performed either at static compile time | 
 | 215 | (compile time or offline optimization time) or at runtime in a JIT type setup. | 
 | 216 | The LLVM transformation itself shouldn't need to know how it is being used.<p> | 
 | 217 |  | 
 | 218 | Ideas for profile guided transformations:<p> | 
 | 219 |  | 
 | 220 | <ol> | 
 | 221 | <li>Superblock formation (with many optimizations) | 
 | 222 | <li>Loop unrolling/peeling | 
 | 223 | <li>Profile directed inlining | 
 | 224 | <li>Code layout | 
 | 225 | <li>... | 
 | 226 | </ol><p> | 
 | 227 |  | 
 | 228 |  | 
 | 229 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 230 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 231 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 232 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 233 | <a name="xforms">New Transformations and Analyses | 
 | 234 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 235 |  | 
 | 236 | <ol> | 
 | 237 | <li>Implement a Dependence Analysis Infrastructure<br> | 
 | 238 |      - Design some way to represent and query dep analysis | 
 | 239 | <li>Implement a faster Dominator Set Construction Algorithm<br> | 
 | 240 |      - A linear time or nearly so algorithm | 
 | 241 | <li>Implement a strength reduction pass | 
 | 242 | <li>Value range propagation pass | 
 | 243 | <li>Implement a tail recursion elimination pass | 
 | 244 | <li>Implement an unswitching pass | 
 | 245 | </ol> | 
 | 246 |  | 
 | 247 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 248 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 249 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 250 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 251 | <a name="x86be">X86 Back-end Improvements | 
 | 252 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 253 |  | 
 | 254 | <ol> | 
 | 255 | <li>Implement a global register allocator | 
 | 256 | <li>Implement a better instruction selector | 
| Chris Lattner | 99df25f | 2003-04-28 03:42:31 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 257 | <li>Implement support for the "switch" instruction without requiring the  | 
 | 258 |     lower-switches pass. | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 259 | </ol> | 
 | 260 |  | 
 | 261 | <!-- ======================================================================= --> | 
 | 262 | </ul><table width="50%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0> | 
 | 263 | <tr><td> </td><td width=100%>   | 
 | 264 | <font color="#EEEEFF" size=+1 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b> | 
 | 265 | <a name="misc_new">Miscellaneous Additions | 
 | 266 | </b></font></td></tr></table><ul> | 
 | 267 |  | 
 | 268 | <ol> | 
 | 269 | <li>Write a new frontend for some language (Java? OCaml? Forth?) | 
 | 270 | <li>Write a new backend for a target (IA64? MIPS? MMIX?) | 
 | 271 | </ol> | 
 | 272 |  | 
 | 273 |  | 
 | 274 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | 275 | </ul> | 
 | 276 | <!-- *********************************************************************** --> | 
 | 277 |  | 
 | 278 | <hr><font size-1> | 
 | 279 | <address><a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></address> | 
 | 280 | <!-- Created: Tue Aug  6 15:00:33 CDT 2002 --> | 
 | 281 | <!-- hhmts start --> | 
| Chris Lattner | 09cea35 | 2003-07-25 18:05:38 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 282 | Last modified: Fri Jul 25 13:04:03 CDT 2003 | 
| Chris Lattner | b713109 | 2003-02-06 19:39:21 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 283 | <!-- hhmts end --> | 
 | 284 | </font></body></html> |