OPTIMA—A portable PCODE optimizer
Asher Wilk, W. Silverman · Software Practice and Experience · 1983
Abstract This paper describes the design and implementation of OPTIMA, a Portable optimizer for the PASCAL‐P4 compiler. The PASCAL‐P4 compiler generates code, called PCODE, for a hypothetical stack computer. The stack computer is easy to simulate or to emulate on a wide range of computer architectures. However, the code produced for it by PASCAL‐P4 is unoptimized and inefficient when emulated on conventional computers. OPTIMA improves the code which is produced by the compiler. It has three levels of optimization: PCODE transformations, TUPLE transformations and Code generation. Programs processed by the optimizer are substantially smaller and faster than before optimization. OPTIMA was implemented for the Weizmann Institute of Science GOLEM‐B computer.