Using Iterative Compilation to Reduce Energy Consumption

The rapid range of architectural changes in processors puts compiler technology under an enormous stress. This is emphasized by new demands added to compilers, like reducing static code size, energy consumption or power dissipation. Iterative compilation has been proposed as an approach to find the best sequence of optimizations (such as loop transformations) for an application, in order to improve its performance. In this paper, we study both the effect of loop transformations on energy consumption as well as the possibility of using the iterative compilation method in order to find the best compiled code for energy and for the combination of energy and performance. From analyzed benchmarks, we conclude that performance improvement is coming together with decreasing energy consumption. Iterative compilation seems therefore a promising approach to the compilation for energy problem, but a larger set of loop transformations and their combinations needs to be studied for a definitive conclusion.