mirror of
https://github.com/c64scene-ar/llvm-6502.git
synced 2024-11-01 15:11:24 +00:00
009505452b
git-svn-id: https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk@2 91177308-0d34-0410-b5e6-96231b3b80d8
40 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
40 lines
2.1 KiB
Plaintext
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 12:04:33 -0600
|
|
From: Vikram S. Adve <vadve@cs.uiuc.edu>
|
|
To: Chris Lattner <lattner@cs.uiuc.edu>
|
|
Subject: another thought
|
|
|
|
I have a budding idea about making LLVM a little more ambitious: a
|
|
customizable runtime system that can be used to implement language-specific
|
|
virtual machines for many different languages. E.g., a C vm, a C++ vm, a
|
|
Java vm, a Lisp vm, ..
|
|
|
|
The idea would be that LLVM would provide a standard set of runtime features
|
|
(some low-level like standard assembly instructions with code generation and
|
|
static and runtime optimization; some higher-level like type-safety and
|
|
perhaps a garbage collection library). Each language vm would select the
|
|
runtime features needed for that language, extending or customizing them as
|
|
needed. Most of the machine-dependent code-generation and optimization
|
|
features as well as low-level machine-independent optimizations (like PRE)
|
|
could be provided by LLVM and should be sufficient for any language,
|
|
simplifying the language compiler. (This would also help interoperability
|
|
between languages.) Also, some or most of the higher-level
|
|
machine-independent features like type-safety and access safety should be
|
|
reusable by different languages, with minor extensions. The language
|
|
compiler could then focus on language-specific analyses and optimizations.
|
|
|
|
The risk is that this sounds like a universal IR -- something that the
|
|
compiler community has tried and failed to develop for decades, and is
|
|
universally skeptical about. No matter what we say, we won't be able to
|
|
convince anyone that we have a universal IR that will work. We need to
|
|
think about whether LLVM is different or if has something novel that might
|
|
convince people. E.g., the idea of providing a package of separable
|
|
features that different languages select from. Also, using SSA with or
|
|
without type-safety as the intermediate representation.
|
|
|
|
One interesting starting point would be to discuss how a JVM would be
|
|
implemented on top of LLVM a bit more. That might give us clues on how to
|
|
structure LLVM to support one or more language VMs.
|
|
|
|
--Vikram
|
|
|