Book Image

Learn LLVM 17 - Second Edition

By : Kai Nacke, Amy Kwan
Book Image

Learn LLVM 17 - Second Edition

By: Kai Nacke, Amy Kwan

Overview of this book

LLVM was built to bridge the gap between the theoretical knowledge found in compiler textbooks and the practical demands of compiler development. With a modular codebase and advanced tools, LLVM empowers developers to build compilers with ease. This book serves as a practical introduction to LLVM, guiding you progressively through complex scenarios and ensuring that you navigate the challenges of building and working with compilers like a pro. The book starts by showing you how to configure, build, and install LLVM libraries, tools, and external projects. You’ll then be introduced to LLVM's design, unraveling its applications in each compiler stage: frontend, optimizer, and backend. Using a real programming language subset, you'll build a frontend, generate LLVM IR, optimize it through the pipeline, and generate machine code. Advanced chapters extend your expertise, covering topics such as extending LLVM with a new pass, using LLVM tools for debugging, and enhancing the quality of your code. You'll also focus on just-in-time compilation issues and the current state of JIT-compilation support with LLVM. Finally, you’ll develop a new backend for LLVM, gaining insights into target description and how instruction selection works. By the end of this book, you'll have hands-on experience with the LLVM compiler development framework through real-world examples and source code snippets.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Part 1: The Basics of Compiler Construction with LLVM
4
Part 2: From Source to Machine Code Generation
10
Part 3: Taking LLVM to the Next Level
14
Part 4: Roll Your Own Backend

Setting the stage for a new backend

Whether commercially needed to support a new CPU or only a hobby project to add support for some old architecture, adding a new backend to LLVM is a major task. This and the following two chapters outline what you need to develop for a new backend. We will add a backend for the Motorola M88k architecture, which is a RISC architecture from the 1980s.

References

You can read more about this Motorola architecture on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_88000. The most important information about this architecture is still available on the internet. You can find the CPU manuals with the instruction set and timing information at http://www.bitsavers.org/components/motorola/88000/, and the System V ABI M88k Processor supplement with the definitions of the ELF format and the calling convention at https://archive.org/details/bitsavers_attunixSysa0138776555SystemVRelease488000ABI1990_8011463.

OpenBSD, available at https://www.openbsd...