[Colloquium] Talk by Matthew Might on Friday, April 13, 2007

[Margery Ishmael]

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE - TALK

Date: Friday, April 13, 2007
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Place: Ryerson 251 (1100 E. 58th St.)

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Speaker: MATTHEW MIGHT from Georgia Tech.

Web page: http://matt.might.net/

Title: Beyond Higher-Order Control-Flow Analysis

Abstract: Higher-order control-flow analysis (k-CFA) has had a  
significant
impact on programming languages and compilers, enabling an array of
critical program optimizations, such as flow-directed closure conversion
and static resolution of virtual methods in functional and object- 
oriented
languages, e.g. SML and Java. Over the past two decades, much  
research has
gone into improving the speed and precision of k-CFA, but surprisingly
little progress has been made in improving its power, that is, in
increasing the kinds of optimizations made possible or in answering new
kinds of questions about a program.

A key problem with k-CFA is the approximation it introduces into its
reasoning about environment structure. The nature of this
approximation fundamentally limits the kind of conclusions that k-CFA
can draw.  This talk covers the development and application of new
techniques for performing environment analysis in a higher-order
setting -- techniques which break through these limitations of twenty
years standing. Of particular note is that these techniques evade the
cost/precision tradeoff usually found in program analyses: compared to
previous techniques, they provide improvements in both power and
precision, yet also reduce the cost of the compile-time analysis.

I will also show how this new class of analyses can be exploited in
important software applications; one example is the fusion of on-line  
data
transducers in stream-processing software, such as DSP pipelines and
network-protocol stacks.

***The talk will be followed by refreshments in Ryerson 255***

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Host:  John Reppy

People in need of assistance should call 773-834-8977 in advance.

For information on future CS talks: http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/events

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