Engineering LLVM Backend: Creating compilers for the next-generation processors and accelerator chips

by Min-Yih Hsu

A practical guide to building LLVM backend from scratch to unleash the power of next-generation processors and accelerator chips With the advancement of chip manufacturing technology and the ever-growing demands of high-performance AI / ML engines, we have seen an explosive number of ASIC – Application Specific IC – chips showing up on the market to accelerate this technology breakthrough. These new hardwares often have their own Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) that requires completely new compilers to support the software running atop. LLVM, being one of the most popular compiler frameworks, provides tools that make a perfect fit for such needs. And this book serves as a guide to the most essential task of creating LLVM-based compilers for new chips – engineering the compiler backend, which is the foundation of turning any application code into machine-executable instructions. Readers will learn how to create an LLVM backend for new hardware architectures from scratch. The book will show them how to create a compiler toolchain that turns high-level source code all the way into low-level binary machine code. By the end of this book, readers are expected to be able to create an LLVM-based compiler toolchain for new hardware architectures. Developers with decent C++ programming experiences should find no problem picking up this title. Basic compiler knowledge is something nice to have, but not required to read this book.

361 pages, Paperback

Published September 11, 2023