Abstract

Although code optimization technology has been successful over the past 40 years, recent trends are emerging that demand we reconsider the paradigm that we are using for code optimization. In particular, the trends toward dynamic optimization, writing embedded system software in high level languages and the lack of significant performance improvement from current optimization research are forcing us to rethink what we know and do not know about optimization. The challenge in optimization today is to explore properties of optimizations and develop a framework for better understanding and use of optimizations. This talk will discuss the problems and then present a framework for predicting the profitability of optimizations. The prediction is done using models that we developed for code optimizations, the code context where an optimization is to be applied and the resources available. We experimentally used the models to selectively determine what optimization to apply and for determining the application order of optimizations to improve performance. Results will be presented that demonstrates our approach is effective and has a much lower overhead than current approaches for determining the order of optimizations.

Short Bio

Mary Lou Soffa is the Owen R. Cheatham Professor and Chair of the Computer Science Department at the University of Virginia. She previously was Professor of Computer Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include software engineering, program analysis, optimizing compilers, and software tools for debugging and testing programs. In 1999, she received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, given by the
President Clinton. She was elected an ACM Fellow in 1999. She serves on the Board of the Computing Research Association (CRA) and CRA-W, the committee on the status of women in computer science and engineering. She has served on the Executive Committees of both ACM SIGSOFT and ACM SIGPLAN as well as conference chair, program chair and program committee member for numerous conferences. Currently, she is the Program Co-Chair for the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) to be held in Shanghai, China in 2006.

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