[LLVMdev] Contribute a new precise pointer analysis to LLVM

[Chandler Carruth]

On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 9:55 AM, Hal Finkel <hfinkel at anl.gov> wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> > Hi Evan,
> >
> > We did an experiment using the LLVM test suite: we compare the
> > overhead of using our analysis to the LLVM default, both with -O2
> > option.
>
> It might also be interesting to try with -O3; I don't know if we have any
> significant vectorizable loops in the test suite with a large number of
> arrays, but if we do, this kind of analysis should help.
>

We perform loop vectorization at -O2 now?


>
> >
> > The overall overhead of compiling the whole test suite using our
> > analysis is 36.5%.
>
> Maybe a good candidate for -fexpensive-optimizations? (or -O4?)
>

It would also be helpful to know what the execution performance impact is
to provide context.


>
> > The biggest overhead is  observed in
> > "SingleSource/Benchmarks/Misc/flops-5", where we are 5 times slower:
> > 0.07s (with our analysis) compared to 0.0133s(default).
> > This may not be accurate as the compilation time in both cases are
> > quite small.
>
> In my experience, compile-time measurements from a normal test-suite
> configuration less than 0.1s are too noisy to use.
>
> >
> > Remind that the compilation time is reported by running our analysis
> > over individual files, the compilation time overhead will be larger
> > if
> > we link all individual compilation units together and run the
> > analysis over the whole application.
>
> Yes, LTO tests would be interesting too.
>
> Thanks again,
> Hal
>
> >
> > Regards,
> > Lian
> >
> > On Sat, Oct 19, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Evan Cheng <evan.cheng at apple.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > On Oct 17, 2013, at 10:51 PM, lian li <lianli at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >> Thanks, Chris.
> > >>
> > >> We are interested in contributing it to LLVM itself. Our manager
> > >> agrees to commit resources for maintenance needs if it is accepted
> > >> by
> > >> the community.
> > >
> > > This is great. Please make sure Oracle legal sign off on explicitly
> > > granting LLVM the use of the patents associated with the work.
> > >
> > > On the compile time front, can you do a comparison with the LLVM
> > > default and your new AA? You can just build the LLVM test suite.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Evan
> > >
> > >>
> > >> Regards,
> > >> Lian
> > >>
> > >> On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 3:43 PM, Chris Lattner
> > >> <clattner at apple.com> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> On Oct 17, 2013, at 5:20 PM, lian li <lianli at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>> Hi All,
> > >>>
> > >>> This is Lian Li  from Oracle Labs in Brisbane Australia.
> > >>>
> > >>> We have developed a precise and highly efficient pointer analysis
> > >>> framework on top of LLVM,  The approach is flow, context, and
> > >>> field
> > >>> sensitive, details are described in the two papers below:
> > >>>
> > >>> "Boosting the performance of flow-sensitive points-to analysis
> > >>> using
> > >>> value flow" (in ESEC-FSE 2011), and
> > >>> "Precise and scalable context-sensitive pointer analysis via
> > >>> value
> > >>> flow graph" (in ISMM 2013).
> > >>>
> > >>> The analysis was initially developed for the purpose of bug
> > >>> checking,
> > >>> and is now extended to support compiler optimizations. We have
> > >>> tested
> > >>> it with existing compiler optimizations in LLVM, and have seen
> > >>> promising results.
> > >>>
> > >>> We are now considering to make this analysis available to the
> > >>> LLVM
> > >>> community, and contribute resources for future maintenance needs,
> > >>> provided that there is enough interest. We think that a new
> > >>> precise
> > >>> pointer analysis in LLVM can enable more new optimization and
> > >>> analysis
> > >>> techniques to be developed in LLVM.
> > >>>
> > >>> Any people interested in seeing a new precise pointer analysis in
> > >>> LLVM?
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> This sounds very interesting.  Even if it isn't fast enough to be
> > >>> used with
> > >>> (for example) clang -O2 or -O3, having such a precise analysis
> > >>> would be a
> > >>> great baseline for doing other alias analysis work.
> > >>>
> > >>> Are you interested in contributing this to LLVM itself, or just
> > >>> asking if
> > >>> people would be interested to see the code in some other form?
> > >>>
> > >>> -Chris
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> // Copyright @ 2011 Authorized by ** LIAN LI **
> > >> _______________________________________________
> > >> LLVM Developers mailing list
> > >> LLVMdev at cs.uiuc.edu         http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu
> > >> http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > // Copyright @ 2011 Authorized by ** LIAN LI **
> > _______________________________________________
> > LLVM Developers mailing list
> > LLVMdev at cs.uiuc.edu         http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu
> > http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev
> >
>
> --
> Hal Finkel
> Assistant Computational Scientist
> Leadership Computing Facility
> Argonne National Laboratory
> _______________________________________________
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> LLVMdev at cs.uiuc.edu         http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu
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>
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