RIFT VALLEY UNIVERSITY

Department of Computer Science

CoSc483 : Computer Design

Chapter One: Introduction

Fikru Tafesse (Lecturer, MSc. in Computer Science)

fikrish2012@gmail.com
tafesse.fikru@yahoo.com

05/25/2020 Fikru Tafesse(MSc. in Computer Science) 1

 Compiler
• A compiler is a computer program which helps you to transform source
code written in a high-level language into low-level machine language.

• It translates the code written in one programming language to some other

language without changing the meaning of the code.

• The compiler also makes the end code efficient which is optimized for
execution time and memory space.

• The compiling process includes basic translation mechanisms and error

detection.
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 … Cont’d

• Compiler process goes through lexical, syntax, and semantic analysis at

the front end, and code generation and optimization at a back-end.

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 Features of Compilers
• Correctness
• Speed of compilation
• Preserve the correct meaning of the code
• The speed of the target code
• Recognize legal and illegal program constructs
• Good error reporting/handling
• Code debugging help

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 Types of Compiler
1.  Single Pass Compilers
2. Two Pass Compilers
3. Multipass Compilers
1. Single Pass Compilers

• In single pass Compiler, source code directly transforms into machine code.

• For example, Pascal language.

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 … Cont’d

2. Two Pass Compilers

• Two pass Compiler is divided into two sections:

1. Front end: It maps legal code into Intermediate Representation (IR).

2. Back end: It maps IR into the target machine

• The Two pass compiler method also simplifies the retargeting process.
• It also allows multiple front ends.
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 … Cont’d

3. Multipass Compilers

• The multipass compiler processes the source code or syntax tree of a program
several times.

• It divided a large program into multiple small programs and process them.

• It develops multiple intermediate codes.

• All of these multipass take the output of the previous phase as an input.

• So it requires less memory.

• It is05/25/2020
also known as Wide Compiler.
Fikru Tafesse(MSc. in Computer Science) 7
 Tasks of Compiler
• Main tasks performed by the Compiler are:
• Breaks up the source program into pieces and impose grammatical structure on
them
• Allows you to construct the desired target program from the intermediate
representation and also create the symbol table
• Compiles source code and detects errors in it
• Manage storage of all variables and codes.
• Support for separate compilation
• Read, analyze the entire program, and translate to semantically equivalent
• 05/25/2020
Translating the source code into object code depending upon the type of machine
Fikru Tafesse(MSc. in Computer Science) 8
 History of Compiler
• Important Landmark of Compiler's history are as follows:
The "compiler" word was first used in the early 1950s by Grace Murray Hopper

The first compiler was build by John Backum and his group between 1954 and 1957 at
IBM
COBOL was the first programming language which was compiled on multiple platforms
in 1960
The study of the scanning and parsing issues were pursued in the 1960s and 1970s to
provide a complete solution

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 Why use a Compiler?
• Compiler verifies entire program, so there are no syntax or semantic errors

• The executable file is optimized by the compiler, so it is executes faster

• Allows you to create internal structure in memory

• Platform independent

• Translate entire program in other language

• Generate files on disk

• Link the files into an executable format

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 … Cont’d

• Check for syntax errors and data types

• Helps you to enhance your understanding of language semantics

• Helps to handle language performance issues

• Opportunity for a non-trivial programming project

• The techniques used for constructing a compiler can be useful for other
purposes as well

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 Application of Compilers
• Compiler design helps full implementation Of High-Level
Programming Languages

• Support optimization for computer architecture parallelism

• Design of new memory hierarchies of machines

• Widely used for translating programs

• Used with other software productivity tools

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 List of Compilers
1. Ada compilers 9. ECMAScript interpreters

2. ALGOL compilers 10. Fortran compilers

3. BASIC compilers 11. Java compilers

4. C# compilers 12. Pascal compilers

5. C compilers 13. PL/I compilers

6. C++ compilers 14. Python compilers

7. COBOL compilers 15. Smalltalk compilers

8. Common Lisp compilers

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 Phases of Compiler
• A compiler operates in phases.

• A phase is a logically interrelated operation that takes source program

in one representation and produces output in another representation.

• There are two phases of compilation.

a. Analysis (Machine Independent/Language Dependent)
b. Synthesis(Machine Dependent/Language independent)

• Compilation process is partitioned into no-of-sub processes called

‘phases’.
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 Source Program Phases …

Lexical Analyzer

Syntax Analyzer

Symbol Table Semantic Analyzer Error Handler

Manager
Intermediate Code
Generator

Code optimizer

Code Generator
Target Program Fig: Phases of Compiler
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• A source program may be divided into modules stored in separate
files. Phases …

1. Lexical Analysis:
• Lexical analyzer phase is the first phase of compilation process.
• It takes source code as input.
• It reads the source program one character at a time and converts it into
meaningful lexemes.
• Lexical analyzer represents these lexemes in the form of tokens.
2. Syntax Analysis
• Syntax analysis is the second phase of compilation process.
• It takes tokens as input and generates a parse tree as output.
• In syntax analysis phase, the parser checks that the expression made by the
tokens is syntactically correct or not. 16
3. Semantic Analysis Phases …
• Semantic analysis is the third phase of compilation process.
• It checks whether the parse tree follows the rules of language.
• Semantic analyzer keeps track of identifiers, their types and expressions.
• The output of semantic analysis phase is the annotated tree syntax.
4. Intermediate Code Generation
• In the intermediate code generation, compiler generates the source code into
the intermediate code.
• Intermediate code is generated between the high-level language and the
machine language.
• The intermediate code should be generated in such a way that you can easily
translate it into the target machine code.
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5. Code Optimization Phases …
• Code optimization is an optional phase.
• It is used to improve the intermediate code so that the output of the
program could run faster and take less space.
• It removes the unnecessary lines of the code and
• arranges the sequence of statements in order to speed up the program
execution.
6. Code Generation
• Code generation is the final stage of the compilation process.
• It takes the optimized intermediate code as input and maps it to the target
machine language.
• Code generator translates the intermediate code into the machine code of
the specified computer. 18
 Phases …
7. Symbol Table Manager

• This is the portion to keep the names used by the program and records
essential information about each.

• The data structure used to record this information called a symbol table

8. Error Handler

• It is invoked when an error in the source program is detected.

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Example: Phases …

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 Cousins of Compiler
• The input to compiler may produced by one or more preprocessors, and
further processing of compiler’s output may be needed before running
machine code obtained.

• The following are the cousins of compilers:

i. Preprocessors
ii. Assemblers
iii. Compilers
iv. Loaders
v. Link editors. 21
 Cousins …
Skeletal Source Program

Preprocessor
Source Program

Compiler
Target Assembly Program

Assembler
Relocatable Machine Code

Loader/Linker-Editor Library, relocatable obj.

File

Absolute Machine Code

Fig. Cousins of Compiler 22

 Preprocessor
• A preprocessor produce input to compilers.
• They may perform the following functions.
1. Macro processing: A preprocessor may allow a user to define macros that are short
hands for longer constructs.
2. File inclusion: A preprocessor may include header files into the program text.
3. Rational preprocessor: these preprocessors augment older languages with more
modern flow-of-control and data structuring facilities.
4. Language Extensions: These preprocessor attempts to add capabilities to the
language by certain amounts to build-in macro
5.
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 Translator
• A software system which converts the source code from one form of language
to another form of language is known as translator.
• Beside program translation, the translator performs another very important
role, the error-detection.
• Any violation of d HLL specification would be detected and reported to the
programmers.
• Important role of translator are:
1. Translating the HLL program input into an equivalent ML program.
2. Providing diagnostic messages wherever the programmer violates specification
of the HLL. 24
• There are three types of translator:
Translator …
• Assembler
• Compiler
• Interpreter
1. Compiler: is a translator which converts the source code from high level
language to low level language.
• The machine-language target program produced by a compiler is usually much
faster than an interpreter at mapping inputs to outputs .
2. Assembler: is a translator that takes the assembly program as input and generates
the machine code as an output.
• An assembly is a mnemonic version of machine code, in which names are used
instead of binary codes for operations.
• There are two types of assembler
1. Single pass: performs on analysis
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 …Cont’d
• When you execute a program which is written in HLL programming
language then it executes into two parts.

• In the first part, the source program compiled and translated into the
object program (low level language).

• In the second part, object program translated into the target program
through the assembler.

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 Interpreter
• An interpreter is a program that appears to execute a source program as if it
were machine language.

• Languages such as BASIC, SNOBOL, LISP can be translated using interpreters.

• JAVA also uses interpreter.

• The process of interpretation can be carried out in following phases.
1. Lexical analysis
2. Syntax analysis
3. Semantic analysis
4. Direct Execution 27
 Interpreter …
Advantages:
• Modification of user program can be easily made and implemented as
execution proceeds.
• Type of object that denotes a various may change dynamically.
• Debugging a program and finding errors is simplified task for a program
used for interpretation.
• The interpreter for the language makes it machine independent.
Disadvantages:
• The execution of the program is slower.
• Memory consumption is more. 28
 Loader And Link-Editor
• Once the assembler procedures an object program, that program must be
placed into memory and executed.
• The assembler could place the object program directly in memory and transfer
control to it, thereby causing the machine language program to be execute.
• This would waste core by leaving the assembler in memory while the user’s
program was being executed.

• Also the programmer would have to retranslate his program with each
execution, thus wasting translation time.

• To over come this problems of wasted translation time and memory.

• System programmers developed another component called loader.

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 Loader …
• Once the assembler procedures an object program, that program must be
placed into memory and executed.

• A loader is a program that places programs into memory and prepares them
for execution.
• It would be more efficient if subroutines could be translated into object form
the loader could relocate directly behind the user’s program.
• The task of adjusting programs they may be placed in arbitrary core locations
is called relocation.

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• Linking and Loading has four functions: Loader …

1. Allocation:
• It means get the memory portions from operating system and storing the
object data.
2. Relocation:
• It maps the relative address to the physical address and relocating the
object code.
3. Linker:
• It combines all the executable object module to pre single executable file.
4. Loader:
• It loads the executable file into permanent storage.

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 Grouping of Phases
• Front end : machine independent phases
• Lexical analysis
• Syntax analysis
• Semantic analysis
• Intermediate code generation
• Some code optimization
• Back end : machine dependent phases
• Final code generation
• Machine-dependent optimizations 32
 Compiler Construction Tools
• These are specialized tools that have been developed for helping implement
various phases of a compiler. The following are the compiler construction tools:

1. Parser Generators: These produce syntax analyzers, normally from input that
is based on a context-free grammar.
• It consumes a large fraction of the running time of a compiler.
• Example: YACC (Yet Another Compiler-Compiler).

2. Scanner Generator: These generate lexical analyzers, normally from a

specification based on regular expressions.
• The basic organization of lexical analyzers is based on finite automation.
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 … Tools
3. Syntax-Directed Translation: These produce routines that walk the parse
tree and as a result generate intermediate code.
• Each translation is defined in terms of translations at its neighbor nodes in
the tree.

4. Automatic Code Generators: It takes a collection of rules to translate

intermediate language into machine language.
• The rules must include sufficient details to handle different possible
access methods for data.

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 … Tools
5. Data-Flow Engines: It does code optimization using data-flow analysis,
that is, the gathering of information about how values are transmitted from one
part of a program to each other part.

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