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Cranelift, an Apache-2.0-licensed code-generation backend developed for the Wasmtime runtime, has been made available for Rust as an optional component in its nightly toolchain since October 2023. Focusing on fast compilation by prioritizing essential optimizations, it uses E-graphs to efficiently address optimization challenges. Unlike many JIT compilers, Cranelift is suitable for non-WebAssembly projects, providing a promising alternative for Rust developers seeking quicker compilation times.
Main Points
Cranelift available for Rust
Cranelift is an Apache-2.0-licensed code-generation backend developed as part of the Wasmtime runtime for WebAssembly, available as an optional component in the Rust nightly toolchain since October 2023.
Cranelift's fast compilation focus
Designed to compete with existing compilers, Cranelift prioritizes essential optimizations to generate code more quickly.
E-graphs optimization approach
Cranelift uses E-graphs for optimization, addressing the phase-ordering problem more efficiently than traditional optimization methods.
Cranelift's broader applicability
Cranelift supports non-WebAssembly projects, differing from many JIT compilers by not depending on fallback to an interpreter.
Performance comparison with LLVM
In tests, Cranelift showed significantly faster compilation times than LLVM, with a study highlighting its performance benefits.
Insights
Cranelift offers fast code generation by prioritizing essential optimizations.
Fast compiler times are one of the many things that users want from their programming languages.
Cranelift's use of E-graphs eliminates the phase-ordering problem common in traditional compilers.
E-graphs efficiently represent sets of equivalent intermediate representations, enabling more effective and memory-efficient optimization.
Cranelift's design makes it suitable for incorporating into non-WebAssembly-related projects.
Unlike many JIT compilers, Cranelift does not rely on being able to fall back to using an interpreter in case an assumption is invalidated.
Cranelift's optimizations include constant propagation, vectors, and floating-point operation optimizations.
A 2020 study showed Cranelift was an order of magnitude faster than LLVM, while producing code that was approximately twice as slow on some benchmarks.
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