The LLVM Lexicon
NOTE: This document is a work in progress!
Table Of Contents
Definitions
  
    - ADCE
- Aggressive Dead Code Elimination
 
  
    - BURS
- Bottom Up Rewriting System—A method of instruction selection for
        code generation.  An example is the BURG tool.
 
  
    - CSE
- Common Subexpression Elimination. An optimization that removes common
    subexpression compuation. For example (a+b)*(a+b) has two
    subexpressions that are the same: (a+b). This optimization would
    perform the addition only once and then perform the multiply (but only if
    it's compulationally correct/safe).
  
 
  
    - DAG
- Directed Acyclic Graph
- Derived Pointer
- A pointer to the interior of an object, such that a garbage collector
    is unable to use the pointer for reachability analysis. While a derived
    pointer is live, the corresponding object pointer must be kept in a root,
    otherwise the collector might free the referenced object. With copying
    collectors, derived pointers pose an additional hazard that they may be
    invalidated at any safe point. This term is used in
    opposition to object pointer.
- DSA
- Data Structure Analysis
- DSE
- Dead Store Elimination
 
  
    - GC
- Garbage Collection. The practice of using reachability analysis instead
    of explicit memory management to reclaim unused memory.
 
  
    - Heap
- In garbage collection, the region of memory which is managed using
    reachability analysis.
 
  
    - IPA
- Inter-Procedural Analysis. Refers to any variety of code analysis that
    occurs between procedures, functions or compilation units (modules).
- IPO
- Inter-Procedural Optimization. Refers to any variety of code
    optimization that occurs between procedures, functions or compilation units
    (modules).
- ISel
- Instruction Selection.
 
  
  	- LCSSA
- Loop-Closed Static Single Assignment Form
- LICM
- Loop Invariant Code Motion
- Load-VN
- Load Value Numbering
 
  
    - Object Pointer
- A pointer to an object such that the garbage collector is able to trace
    references contained within the object. This term is used in opposition to
    derived pointer.
 
  
    - PRE
- Partial Redundancy Elimination
 
  
  	- RAUW
- An abbreviation for Replace
  	All Uses With. The functions User::replaceUsesOfWith(), 
  	Value::replaceAllUsesWith(), and Constant::replaceUsesOfWithOnConstant()
  	implement the replacement of one Value with another by iterating over its
  	def/use chain and fixing up all of the pointers to point to the new value.
  	See also def/use chains.
  	
- Reassociation
- Rearranging
    associative expressions to promote better redundancy elimination and other
    optimization.  For example, changing (A+B-A) into (B+A-A), permitting it to
    be optimized into (B+0) then (B).
- Root
- In garbage collection, a
    pointer variable lying outside of the heap from which
    the collector begins its reachability analysis. In the context of code
    generation, "root" almost always refers to a "stack root" -- a local or
    temporary variable within an executing function.
 
  
    - Safe Point
- In garbage collection, it is necessary to identify stack
    roots so that reachability analysis may proceed. It may be infeasible to
    provide this information for every instruction, so instead the information
    may is calculated only at designated safe points. With a copying collector,
    derived pointers must not be retained across
    safe points and object pointers must be
    reloaded from stack roots.
- SDISel
- Selection DAG Instruction Selection.
- SCC
- Strongly Connected Component
- SCCP
- Sparse Conditional Constant Propagation
- SRoA
- Scalar Replacement of Aggregates
- SSA
- Static Single Assignment
- Stack Map
- In garbage collection, metadata emitted by the code generator which
    identifies roots within the stack frame of an executing
    function.
 
 
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