Fixed point exploitation via compiler analyses and transformations: POSTER

Abstract

Fixed point computation represents a key feature in the design process of embedded applications. It is also exploited as a mean to data size tuning for HPC tasks [2]. Since the conversion from floating point to fixed point is generally performed manually, it is time-consuming and error-prone. However, the full automation of such task is currently unfeasible, as existing open source tools are not mature enough for industry adoption. To bridge this gap, we introduce our Tuning Assistant for Floating point to Fixed point Optimization (TAFFO). TAFFO is a toolset of LLVM compiler plugins that automatically converts computations from floating point to fixed point. TAFFO leverages programmer hints to understand the characteristics of the input data, and then performs the code conversion using the most appropriate data types. TAFFO allows programmers to equally apply fine-grained precision tuning to a wide range of programming languages, whereas most current competitors are limited to C. Moreover, it is easily applicable to most embedded [1] and high performance applications [10, 11], and it allows easy maintenance and extensions.