15-411 Compiler Design

This course covers the design and implementation of compiler and runtime systems for high-level languages, and examines the interaction between language design, compiler design, and runtime organization. Topics covered include lexical and syntactic analysis, type-checking, program analysis, code generation and optimization, memory management, and runtime organization.

• Distinguish the main phases of a state-of-the-art compiler
• Understand static and dynamic semantics of an imperative language
• Develop parsers and lexers using parser generators and combinators
• Perform semantic analysis
• Translate abstract syntax trees to intermediate representations and static single assignment form
• Analyze the dataflow in an imperative language
• Perform standard compiler optimizations
• Generate efficient assembly code for a modern architecture
• Allocate registers using a graph-coloring algorithm
• Understand opportunities and limitations of compiler optimizations
• Appreciate design tradeoffs how representation affects optimizations
• Automatically manage memory using garbage collection
• Develop complex software following high-level specifications