CAREER: Compiler-Assisted Data Adaptation

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Data management has become a core function of computing, stronglyinfluencing not only performance but also energy consumption, programsecurity, fault tolerance, and other program properties. While manyprograms use a large amount of data, they do not access all data atall times. Hence, data adaptation can improve cache efficiency byidentifying and compacting precisely those data required at a givenpoint of computation. Such fine-grained and dynamic data managementmay significantly alleviate the bottleneck on communication andstrengthen the control of data.This research studies fine-grained data adaptation through acompiler-based approach. It develops three compiler-assistedtechniques. First, program monitoring analyzes selected data; then,locality analysis identifies their group locality; and finally, datatransformation changes their layout while maintaining programcorrectness using run-time data maps. The new system improves cacheoptimization for data-intensive applications on conventional machinesand memory management for general-purpose programs on embeddeddevices. In parallel to research, the investigator developsdata-analysis tools to support teaching of memory issues in computerorganization, compiler, and programming courses. The investigatoralso develops an advanced course that focuses on memory optimizationtechniques at all system levels.