What is LLVM used for?

LLVM is a library that is used to construct, optimize and produce intermediate and/or binary machine code. LLVM can be used as a compiler framework, where you provide the “front end” (parser and lexer) and the “back end” (code that converts LLVM’s representation to actual machine code).

Why should I use LLVM?

LLVM helps build new computer languages and improve existing languages. It automates many of the difficult and unpleasant tasks involved in language creation, such as porting the outputted code to multiple platforms and architectures.

What is LLVM in IOS?

The LLVM compiler is the next-generation compiler, introduced in Xcode 3.2 for Snow Leopard, based on the open source LLVM.org project. In Xcode, the LLVM compiler uses the Clang front end (a C-based languages project on LLVM.org) to parse source code and turn it into an interim format. …

Who created LLVM?

Chris Lattner
One big reason is new tools for building languages—specifically, compilers. And chief among them is LLVM, an open source project originally developed by Swift language creator Chris Lattner as a research project at the University of Illinois.

Is LLVM open source?

LLVM is publicly available under an open source License.

Does Apple use LLVM?

Apple Inc. All of Apple’s operating systems, iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS, are built with LLVM technologies. And Xcode, Apple’s integrated development environment, supports development in Swift, C, C++, and Objective-C, all of which use and are built with LLVM technologies.

Is LLVM a language?

LLVM is designed around a language-independent intermediate representation (IR) that serves as a portable, high-level assembly language that can be optimized with a variety of transformations over multiple passes.

Is LLVM stack based?

1 Answer. The JVM is a stack-based virtual machine. VMKit was an open-source project of LLVM which implemented a JVM with a LLVM backend. The idea of VMKit was to create a toolkit for building virtual machines (or managed runtime environments) such as JVM, CLI/CLR, R’s runtime etc.

Is LLVM cross platform?

2 Answers. LLVM IR can be cross-platform, with the obvious exceptions others have listed. However, that does not mean Clang generates cross-platform code. As you note, the preprocessor is almost universally used to only pass parts of the code to the C/C++ compiler, depending on the platform.

Why does Apple use LLVM in iOS development?

Apple is also using LLVM in iPhone development, as the project’s modular architecture makes it easier to add support for other architectures such as ARM, now supported in LLVM 2.0 thanks to work done by Nokia’s INdT. On page 2 of 2: LLVM and Apple’s Multicore Future; and Open for Improvement.

What are the languages that use LLVM?

The roster of languages making use of LLVM has many familiar names. Apple’s Swift language uses LLVM as its compiler framework, and Rust uses LLVM as a core component of its tool chain. Also, many compilers have an LLVM edition, such as Clang, the C/C++ compiler (this the name, “C-lang”), itself a project closely allied with LLVM.

What is llllvm and why is it important?

LLVM plays into Apple’s ongoing strategies for multicore and multiprocessor parallelism. CPUs are now reaching physical limits that are preventing chips from getting faster simply by driving up the gigahertz. Intel’s roadmaps indicate that the company now plans to drive future performance by adding multiple cores.

Why does Apple use LLVM in the OpenGL stack?

Apple also uses LLVM in the OpenGL stack in Leopard, leveraging its virtual machine concept of common IR to emulate OpenGL hardware features on Macs that lack the actual silicon to interpret that code. Code is instead interpreted or JIT on the CPU.