• Paper: Formal Performance and Compile Time Guarantees for Compiler Optimization Heuristics

    From John R Levine@johnl@taugh.com to comp.compilers on Sat Aug 22 18:35:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: comp.compilers

    Nice little paper does a simple model of an inlining optimization and
    shows it's equivalent to a well known game theory problem.

    Abstract
    Modern optimizing compilers rely on heuristic search algorithms for
    NP-hard optimization problems, which can result in poor generated-code performance and long or unpredictable compile times. These are considered
    bugs by users, but verified compilers rarely reason beyond semantic preservation. We propose verifying performance and compile time properties
    of compiler passes. As a proof-of-concept, we formulate inline expansion
    using a cost model estimating instruction-cache performance. We mechanize
    this in Rocq, prove semantic preservation of the inlining transformation,
    and verify the algorithm's monotone improvement, convergence-time bound,
    and performance bounds for intermediate and final solutions.

    https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.20137

    Regards,
    John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Taughannock Networks, Trumansburg NY
    Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly
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