Strength reduction flub in Sun-4 C compiler

Felix Lee flee at shire.cs.psu.edu
Wed Feb 22 10:52:43 AEST 1989


Machine Type:   Sun 4/260S
O/S Version:    SunOS 4.0
Organization:   Computer Science Department, The Pennsylvania State University
                333 Whitmore Laboratory, University Park, PA   16802

Description:
	Compile the following code with -O2 optimization:

	main()
	{
		int k, total, x, y;

		total = 0;
		for (k = 3; k > 0; --k) {
			x = total;
			total += 7;
			x = total - x;
			y = x << 2;
			printf("%d\n", y);
		}
	}

	Instead of printing 28, 28, 28 as you would expect, it produces
	0, 28, 56. 

	Looking at the assembly code, the compiler is doing strength
	reduction in the outer loop, incorrectly:
		%i4 = 0;
		for (k = 3; k > 0; --k) {
			printf("%d\n", %i4);
			%i4 += 28;
		}
	%i4 is a register that tracks the value (total*4).

	Despite being wrong, the strength reduction is of dubious value...
--
Felix Lee



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