From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Robert Lipe To: gas2@cygnus.com Subject: Re: other apps that assemble code Date: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 10:38:00 -0000 Message-id: <19980205123732.35907@dgii.com> References: <199802051756.JAA28237@canuck.cygnus.com.> <199802051756.JAA28237@canuck.cygnus.com.> X-SW-Source: 1998/msg00032.html > I have seen articles about "optimizing assemblers" for really smart cpus > which insert nops, reorder instructions to avoid stalls, reassign > registers, etc. This type of tools would benefit from a generic assembly > > Ok, but methinks this is still just GAS. > Or am I misunderstanding something? I'm not sure if it really goes to answer the original question or not, but there exist highly optimizing assemblers. The one I worked with was the MIPS assembler. I don't know if that technology was kept when MIPS collapsed into SGI or not. By that time, I'd defected from that train. The mips uopt pass did many of the same optimizations at the assembler level that GCC does a couple of levels up. It did flow analysis, constant propogation, branch prediction and all sort os wild and crazy things. The "optimization" in GAS is far less ambitious. This is the lone thing that I actually miss about the MIPS tools. -- Robert Lipe http://www.dgii.com/people/robertl robertl@dgii.com