Reducing code size through address register assignment

  • Authors:

  • G. Chen;M. Kandemir;M. J. Irwin;J. Ramanujam

  • Affiliations:

  • Pennsylvania State University, Univerity Park, PA;Pennsylvania State University, Univerity Park, PA;Pennsylvania State University, Univerity Park, PA;Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

  • Venue:
  • ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS)
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

In DSP processors, minimizing the amount of address calculations is critical for reducing code size and improving performance, since studies of programs have shown that instructions that manipulate address registers constitute a significant portion of the overall instruction count (up to 55%). This work presents a compiler-based optimization strategy to “reduce the code size in embedded systems.” Our strategy maximizes the use of indirect addressing modes with postincrement/decrement capabilities available in DSP processors. These modes can be exploited by ensuring that successive references to variables access consecutive memory locations. To achieve this spatial locality, our approach uses both access pattern modification (program code restructuring) and memory storage reordering (data layout restructuring). Experimental results on a set of benchmark codes show the effectiveness of our solution and indicate that our approach outperforms the previous approaches to the problem. In addition to resulting in significant reductions in instruction memory (storage) requirements, the proposed technique improves execution time.