High-quality code generation via bottom-up tree pattern matching

High-quality local code generation is one of the most difficult tasks the compiler-writer faces. Even if register allocation decisions are postponed and common subexpressions are ignored, instruction selection on machines with complex addressing can be quite difficult. Efficient and general algorithms have been developed to do instruction selection, but these algorithms fail to always find optimal solutions. Instruction selection algorithms based on dynamic programming or complete enumeration always find optimal solutions, but seem to be too costly to be practical. This paper describes a new instruction selection algorithm, and its prototype implementation, based on bottom-up tree pattern-matching. This algorithm is both time and space efficient, and is capable of doing optimal instruction selection for the DEC VAX-11 with its rich set of addressing modes.

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