Advanced · Module 9 · Lesson 5 of 13
Compiler Optimization Internals: Vectorization, Inlining, and Assembly Auditing
Audit compiler-emitted assembly, resolve pointer aliasing with restrict, guide SIMD vectorization across AVX2/AVX-512 registers, and balance function inlining against instruction cache bloat.
By the end you can
- Audit compiler-emitted x86-64 machine instructions using objdump and GCC/Clang assembly flags
- Diagnose auto-vectorization failures using -fopt-info-vec-missed diagnostic reports
- Eliminate conservative pointer aliasing assumptions using the C99 restrict keyword
- Control inlining heuristics using always_inline attributes to optimize register allocation
Builds on Memory and Concurrency Sanitizers: ASan, UBSan, TSan, and Valgrind Massif.
01 · A question first
Why can adding a single restrict keyword to a pointer in a math loop cause GCC to emit AVX-512 SIMD instructions that run 8x faster, while omitting it forces scalar assembly with redundant memory re-loads? The answer lies in pointer aliasing and compiler conservative correctness.
Make a guess before you read on.
02 · The idea
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What's inside
- Start with the problem
- How the idea works
- Complete Working Benchmark: Scalar vs. Vectorized Arithmetic
- Why it is correct
- What it costs
- Pitfalls and variations
- Where it is used
03 · Practice
Asked in interviews
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