Title
Approximating Pareto optimal compiler optimization sequences—a trade-off between WCET, ACET and code size
Abstract
With the growing complexity of embedded systems software, high code quality can only be achieved using a compiler. Sophisticated compilers provide a vast spectrum of various optimizations to improve code aggressively w.r.t. different objective functions, e.g. average-case execution time (ACET) or code size. Owing to the complex interactions between the optimizations, the choice for a promising sequence of code transformations is not trivial. Compiler developers address this problem by proposing standard optimization levels, e.g. O3 or Os. However, previous studies have shown that these standard levels often miss optimization potential or might even result in performance degradation. In this paper, we propose the first adaptive worst-case execution time (WCET)-aware compiler framework for an automatic search of compiler optimization sequences that yield highly optimized code. Besides the objective functions ACET and code size, we consider the WCET which is a crucial parameter for real-time systems. To find suitable trade-offs between these objectives, stochastic evolutionary multi-objective algorithms identifying Pareto optimal solutions for the objectives 〈WCET, ACET 〉 and 〈WCET, code size 〉 are exploited. A comparison based on statistical performance assessments is performed that helps to determine the most suitable multi-objective optimizer. The effectiveness of our approach is demonstrated on real-life benchmarks showing that standard optimization levels can be significantly outperformed. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1002/spe.1079
Softw., Pract. Exper.
Keywords
DocType
Volume
aware compiler framework,optimization potential,standard optimization level,sophisticated compiler,optimized code,compiler developer,compiler optimization sequence,high code quality,code size,code transformation
Journal
41
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
12
0038-0644
4
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.52
26
5
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Paul Lokuciejewski11569.86
Sascha Plazar2954.71
Heiko Falk346231.54
Peter Marwedel41904184.40
Lothar Thiele514025957.82