Detecting Arithmetic Optimization Opportunities for C Compilers by Randomly Generated Equivalent Programs

This paper presents new methods of detecting missed arithmetic optimization opportunities for C compilers by random testing. For each iteration of random testing, two equivalent programs are generated, where the arithmetic expressions in the second program are more optimized in the C program level....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIPSJ Transactions on System LSI Design Methodology Vol. 9; pp. 21 - 29
Main Authors Hashimoto, Atsushi, Ishiura, Nagisa
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Tokyo Information Processing Society of Japan 2016
Japan Science and Technology Agency
Subjects
Arithmetic
arithmetic optimization
Assembly
compiler validation
Compilers
Equivalence
Optimization
optimization opportunities
random testing
Random variables
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Summary:This paper presents new methods of detecting missed arithmetic optimization opportunities for C compilers by random testing. For each iteration of random testing, two equivalent programs are generated, where the arithmetic expressions in the second program are more optimized in the C program level. By comparing the two assembly codes compiled from the two C programs, lack of optimization on either of the programs is detected. This method is further extended for detecting erroneous or insufficient optimization involving volatile variables. Two random programs differing only on the initial values for volatile variables are generated, and the resulting assembly codes are compared. Random test systems implemented based on the proposed methods have detected missed optimization opportunities on several compilers, including the latest development versions of GCC-5.0.0 and LLVM/Clang-3.6.
ISSN:1882-6687
1882-6687
DOI:10.2197/ipsjtsldm.9.21