Finding Best Compiler Options for Critical Software Using Parallel Algorithms

The efficiency of a software piece is a key factor for many systems. Real-time programs, critical software, device drivers, kernel OS functions and many other software pieces which are executed thousands or even millions of times per day require a very efficient execution. How this software is built can significantly affect the run time for these programs, since the context is that of compile-once/run-many. In this sense, the optimization flags used during the compilation time are a crucial element for this goal and they could make a big difference in the final execution time. In this paper, we use parallel metaheuristic techniques to automatically decide which optimization flags should be activated during the compilation on a set of benchmarking programs. The using the appropriate flag configuration is a complex combinatorial problem, but our approach is able to adapt the flag tuning to the characteristics of the software, improving the final run times with respect to other spread practicesThis research has been partially funded by the Spanish MINECO and FEDER projects (TIN2014-57341-R (http://moveon.lcc.uma.es), TIN2016-81766-REDT (http://cirti.es), and TIN2017-88213-R (http://6city.lcc.uma.es). It is also funded by Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech