23 lines
1.4 KiB
Text
23 lines
1.4 KiB
Text
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Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM) is:
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A compilation strategy designed to enable effective program optimization across
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the entire lifetime of a program. LLVM supports effective optimization at
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compile time, link-time (particularly interprocedural), run-time and offline
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(i.e., after software is installed), while remaining transparent to developers
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and maintaining compatibility with existing build scripts.
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A virtual instruction set - LLVM is a low-level object code representation that
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uses simple RISC-like instructions, but provides rich, language-independent,
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type information and dataflow (SSA) information about operands. This combination
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enables sophisticated transformations on object code, while remaining
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light-weight enough to be attached to the executable. This combination is key to
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allowing link-time, run-time, and offline transformations.
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A compiler infrastructure - LLVM is also a collection of source code that
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implements the language and compilation strategy. The primary components of the
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LLVM infrastructure are a GCC-based C & C++ front-end, a link-time optimization
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framework with a growing set of global and interprocedural analyses and
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transformations, static back-ends for the X86, X86-64, PowerPC 32/64, ARM,
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Thumb, IA-64, Alpha and SPARC architectures, a back-end which emits portable C
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code, and a Just-In-Time compiler for X86, X86-64, PowerPC 32/64 processors.
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