The LLVM representation aims to be a light weight and low level while being -expressive, type safe, and extensible at the same time. It aims to be a -"universal IR" of sorts, by being at a low enough level that high level ideas -may be cleanly mapped to it (similar to how microprocessors are "universal -IR's", allowing many source languages to be mapped to them). By providing type -safety, LLVM can be used as the target of optimizations: for example, through -pointer analysis, it can be proven that a C automatic variable is never accessed -outside of the current function... allowing it to be promoted to a simple SSA -value instead of a memory location.
+expressive, typed, and extensible at the same time. It aims to be a "universal +IR" of sorts, by being at a low enough level that high level ideas may be +cleanly mapped to it (similar to how microprocessors are "universal IR's", +allowing many source languages to be mapped to them). By providing type +information, LLVM can be used as the target of optimizations: for example, +through pointer analysis, it can be proven that a C automatic variable is never +accessed outside of the current function... allowing it to be promoted to a +simple SSA value instead of a memory location.