Collberg's Software Compiler Retargeting Research

There are three popular methods for constructing highly retargetable compilers: (1) the compiler emits abstract machine code which is interpreted at run-time, (2) the compiler emits C code which is subsequently compiled to machine code by the native C compiler, or (3) the compiler's code-generator is generated by a back-end generator from a formal machine description produced by the compiler writer.

These methods incur high costs at run-time, compile-time, or compiler-construction time, respectively.

We're interested in a fourth method which combines the fast retargeting of C code generating compilers with the efficiency of specification-driven code generators.

The basic idea is to use the native C compiler at compiler construction time to discover architectural features of the new architecture. From this information a formal machine description is produced. Given this machine description, a native code-generator can be generated by a back-end generator such as BEG or burg.

Download

To try out the system you need (at least) Sicstus Prolog and gawk.

ADT.tar.gz The full package, including source and some examples (Alpha, Sparc, Mips, x86, VAX). No documentation.
This software is copyright 1997, the University of Auckland. You are given the right to freely copy and modify this work, as long as you attribute its origin.
If you manage to make some money from this, send me some.

Publications
Christian S. Collberg	Reverse Interpretation + Mutation Analysis = Automatic Retargeting		June, 1997
Christian S. Collberg	ACM SIGPLAN '97 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI'97)	Las Vegas, Nevada	pp. 55-70
Christian S. Collberg	Automatic Derivation of Machine Descriptions		February, 1997
Christian S. Collberg	Proceedings of the Twentieth Australasian Computer Science Conference	Sydney, Australia	pp. 253-264