Object code optimizer: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:30, 6 September 2015

Latest revision as of 22:35, 29 July 2025

(46 intermediate revisions by 26 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{Short description|Aspect of software compilation}}

{{Multiple issues|

{{original research|date=November 2016}}

{{Confusing|reason=inconsistent|date=February 2018}}

}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020|cs1-dates=y}}

{{Use list-defined references|date=August 2022}}

[[Image:Binary optimizer.png|thumb|180px|A binary optimizer takes the existing output from a compiler and produces a better execution file with the same functionality.]]

An '''object code optimizer''', sometimes also known as a '''post pass optimizer''' or, for small sections of code, '''[[peephole optimization|peephole optimizer]]''', forms part of a software [[compiler]]. It takes the output from athe source language compile step - the object code or [[binary file]] - and tries to replace identifiable sections of the code with replacement code that is more [[algorithmic efficiency|algorithmically efficient]] (usually improved speed).

==Examples==

* The earliest "COBOL Optimizer" was developed by [[Capex Corporation]] in the mid 1970s for [[COBOL]]. This type of optimizer depended, in this case, upon knowledge of '"weaknesses'" in the standard IBM COBOL compiler, and actually replaced (or [[patch (computing)|patch]]ed) sections of the object code with more efficient code. The replacement code might replace a linear [[lookup table|table lookup]] with a [[binary search algorithm|binary search]] for example or sometimes simply replace a relatively slow instruction with a known faster one that was otherwise functionally equivalent within its context. This technique is now known as [[strength reduction]]. For example, on the [[IBM/360]] hardware the '''<code>CLI'''</code> instruction was, depending on the particular model, between twice and 5 times as fast as a '''<code>CLC'''</code> instruction for single byte comparisons.<ref>http: name="IBM"//www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/A22_6825-1_360instrTiming.pdf</ref><ref>http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id name=358732&dl=GUIDE&dl=ACM<"Evans_1982"/ref>

===Advantages===

Line 11 ⟶ 19:

===Other optimizers===

Some binary optimizers such as [[UPX]] do [[executable compression]], which reduces the ''size'' of binary files using generic [[data compression]] techniques, reducing storage requirements and transfer and loading times, but not improving run-time performance. Actual consolidation of duplicate library modules would also reduce memory requirements.

Some binary optimizers utilize [[run time (program lifecycle phase)|run-time]] metrics ([[profiling (computer programming)|profiling]]) to introspectively improve performance using techniques similar to [[just-in-time compilation|JIT]] compilers.

Line 17 ⟶ 25:

===Recent developments===

More recently developed '"binary optimizers'" for various platforms, some claiming [[novelty (patent)|novelty]] but, nevertheless, essentially using the same (or similar) techniques described above, include:

* [[IBM]] automatic binary optimizer for z/OS (ABO) (2015)<ref name="IBM_ABO_2015"/>

*[[The Sun Studio Binary Code Optimizer]] [http://developers.sun.com/solaris/articles/binopt.html] - which requires a [[software performance analysis|profile]] phase beforehand

* [[IBM]] automatic binary optimizer for z/OS (ABO) trial cloud service (2020)<ref name="IBM_ABO_2020"/>

*Design and Engineering of a Dynamic Binary Optimizer - from [[IBM]] T. J. Watson Res. Center (Feb 2005) [http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel5/5/30187/01386661.pdf?arnumber=1386661] [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1254810.1254831]

*[[ The Sun Studio Binarybinary Codecode Optimizer]]optimizer<ref [http://developers.sun.com/solaris/articlesname="Binopt"/binopt.html]> -— which requires a [[software performance analysis|profile]] phase beforehand

*QuaC: Binary Optimization for Fast [[self-modifying code|Runtime Code Generation]] in [[C (programming language)|C]] [http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/CSD-94-792.pdf] - (which appears to include some elements of JIT)

* Design and Engineering of a Dynamic Binary Optimizer — from [[IBM]] T. J. Watson Res. Center (February 2005)<ref name="Duesterwald_2005"/><ref name="Xu-Li-Bao-Wang-Huang_2007"/>

*[[DynamoRIO]]

* QuaC: Binarybinary Optimizationoptimization for Fastfast [[self-modifying code|Runtimeruntime Codecode Generationgeneration]] in [[C (programming language)|C]]<ref [http:name="CSD_1994"//www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/CSD-94-792.pdf]> -— (which appears to include some elements of JIT)

*COBRA: An Adaptive Runtime Binary Optimization Framework for Multithreaded Applications [http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4343832&isnumber=4343799]

* [[DynamoRIO]]

*Spike Executable Optimizer (Unix kernel) [http://www.cesr.ncsu.edu/fddo4/papers/spike_fddo4.pdf]

* COBRA: an adaptive runtime binary optimization framework for multithreaded applications<ref name="Kim-Hse-Yew_2007"/>

*[http://www.cs.arizona.edu/solar/ "SOLAR" Software Optimization at Link-time And Run-time]

* Spike executable optimizer (Unix kernel)<ref name="Spike_2010"/>

* "SOLAR" software optimization at link-time and run-time<ref name="SOLAR"/>

* Dynimize: CPU performance virtualization<ref name="Dynimize"/>

* BOLT: post-link optimizer built on top of the [[LLVM]] framework. Utilizing sample-based profiling, BOLT improves the performance of real-world applications even for highly optimized binaries built with both [[Feedback directed optimization|feedback directed optimization]] and [[link-time optimization]]. For [[GNU Compiler Collection|GCC]] and [[Clang]] compilers, BOLT speeds up their binaries by up to 20.4% on top of FDO and LTO, and up to 52.1% if the binaries are built without FDO and LTO.<ref name="Panchenko-Auler_2019"/>

==See also==

* [[Binary recompilation]]

* [[Binary translation]]

* [[Dynamic dead code elimination]]

==References==

{{reflist}}|refs=

<ref name="IBM_ABO_2015">{{cite web |date=2015 |url=https://www.ibm.com/products/automatic-binary-optimizer-zos |title=IBM Automatic Binary Optimizer for z/OS - Overview |website=www.ibm.com |access-date=2020-05-15 |archive-date=2020-10-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201018172402/https://www.ibm.com/products/automatic-binary-optimizer-zos |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="IBM_ABO_2020">{{cite web |date=2020 |url=https://optimizer.ibm.com/ |title=IBM Automatic Binary Optimizer for z/OS Trial Cloud Service |website=optimizer.ibm.com |access-date=2021-10-27 |archive-date=2021-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119201500/https://optimizer.ibm.com/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Panchenko-Auler_2019">{{cite book |author-last1=Panchenko |author-first1=Maksim |author-last2=Auler |author-first2=Rafael |author-last3=Nell |author-first3=Bill |author-last4=Ottoni |author-first4=Guilherme |title=2019 IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization (CGO) |chapter=BOLT: A Practical Binary Optimizer for Data Centers and Beyond |date=2019-02-16 |pages=2–14 |doi=10.1109/CGO.2019.8661201 |arxiv=1807.06735 |isbn=978-1-7281-1436-1 |s2cid=49869552}}</ref>

<ref name="IBM">{{cite web |url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/A22_6825-1_360instrTiming.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2010-01-07 |archive-date=2010-07-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711101128/http://bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/A22_6825-1_360instrTiming.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Evans_1982">{{cite journal |title=Software engineering for the Cobol environment |author-first=Michael |author-last=Evans |date=1982-12-01 |journal=Communications of the ACM |volume=25 |issue=12 |pages=874–882 |doi=10.1145/358728.358732 |s2cid=17268690 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

<ref name="Binopt">{{cite web |url=http://developers.sun.com/solaris/articles/binopt.html |title=The Binary Code Optimizer |access-date=2010-01-07 |archive-date=2010-07-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722060415/http://developers.sun.com/solaris/articles/binopt.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Duesterwald_2005">{{cite journal |doi=10.1109/JPROC.2004.840302 |title=Design and Engineering of a Dynamic Binary Optimizer |date=2005 |author-last=Duesterwald |author-first=E. |journal=Proceedings of the IEEE |volume=93 |issue=2 |pages=436–448 |s2cid=2217101}}</ref>

<ref name="Xu-Li-Bao-Wang-Huang_2007">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1145/1254810.1254831 |chapter=Metadata driven memory optimizations in dynamic binary translator |author-first1=Chaohao |author-last1=Xu |author-first2=Jianhui |author-last2=Li |author-first3=Tao |author-last3=Bao |author-first4=Yun |author-last4=Wang |author-first5=Bo |author-last5=Huang |title=Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Virtual execution environments - VEE '07 |date=2007-06-13 |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |pages=148–157 |via=ACM Digital Library |doi=10.1145/1254810.1254831 |isbn=978-1-59593630-1 |s2cid=15234434 |access-date=2021-10-27 |archive-date=2021-10-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027171912/https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1254810.1254831 |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="CSD_1994">{{cite web |url=http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/CSD-94-792.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2010-01-07 |archive-date=2009-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419013547/http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/1994/CSD-94-792.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="Kim-Hse-Yew_2007">{{cite book |doi=10.1109/ICPP.2007.23 |isbn=978-0-7695-2933-2 |chapter=COBRA: An Adaptive Runtime Binary Optimization Framework for Multithreaded Applications |title=2007 International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP 2007) |date=2007 |author-last1=Kim |author-first1=Jinpyo |author-last2=Hsu |author-first2=Wei-Chung |author-last3=Yew |author-first3=Pen-Chung |pages=25 |s2cid=15079211}}</ref>

<ref name="Spike_2010">{{cite web |url=http://www.cesr.ncsu.edu/fddo4/papers/spike_fddo4.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2010-01-07 |archive-date=2010-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100911004025/http://www.cesr.ncsu.edu/fddo4/papers/spike_fddo4.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref>

<ref name="Dynimize">{{cite web |url=https://dynimize.com/product |title=Dynimize Product Overview |website=dynimize.com |access-date=2021-04-26 |archive-date=2021-10-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211025205130/https://dynimize.com/product |url-status=live}}</ref>

<ref name="SOLAR">{{cite web |url=http://www.cs.arizona.edu/solar/ |title="SOLAR" Software Optimization at Link-time And Run-time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214082946/http://www.cs.arizona.edu/solar/ |archive-date=14 February 2016 }}</ref>

}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Object Code Optimizer}}