D15: Microsoft Phoenix: A Framework for Software Analysis and Optimization

John Lefor, Microsoft Research

Wednesday, March 17, 17:15
Thursday, March 19, 11:45

Phoenix is the next generation optimization and analysis framework currently under development as a joint project between Microsoft Research and the Microsoft Developer Division. Phoenix provides a framework for analysis and code generation for any .Net language as well as being extensible to support input in a variety of other forms (AST's, binaries ...). The structure of the Phoenix framework makes it useful for the implementation of language neutral weavers and could readily be adopted to offer additional opportunities for software analysis. Being based in the .Net platform Phoenix is language agnostic and offers a variety of extensibility models to adapt to novel problem areas.

Attendees of the demonstration will get a quick overview of the Phoenix architecture and extensibility model and will see compiler plug-ins and software analysis applications built using the Phoenix framework operating on conventional C# or C++ applications. We will review the source code for some simple plug-ins and see how they can be used to modify the compilation process and we will look at an application which is a version of the compiler backend modified to offer a deeper understanding of what happens during the code generation and optimization process.