Bitwidth Analysis with Application to Silicon Compilation

Abstract

In this paper introduces Bitwise, a compiler that minimizes the bitwidth - the number of bits used to represent each operand - for both integers and pointers in a program. By propagating static information both forward and backward in the program dataflow graph, Bitwise frees in cases where the compiler can determine bitwidths automatically. We find a rich opportunity for bitwidth reductionin modern multimedia and streaming application workloads. For new architectures that support sub-word quantities, we expect that our bitwidth reductions will save power and increase processor performance.