Code Generation Backends

LLVM, Cranelift, QBE, MIR, libgccjit, copy-and-patch, DynASM, golang-asm, MLIR, C-as-target, TCC/chibicc, Wasmtime AOT, direct object emission, JIT library survey.

15 items

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

MEP-42 Backend Survey: Summary and Recommendation

Comparison table and Phase 1 / Phase 2 recommendation for Mochi's native code-generation backend.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

LLVM as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

The workhorse SSA infrastructure, version 20 era, evaluated for MEP-42.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

Cranelift as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

Bytecode Alliance's Rust-native SSA backend, ISLE-driven, ~10x faster compile than LLVM.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

QBE as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

Quentin Carbonneaux's deliberately tiny SSA backend, "70% of LLVM in 10% of the code."

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

MIR as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

Vladimir Makarov's lightweight JIT+AOT, fast compile times, lazy basic-block versioning.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

libgccjit as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

GCC as a shared library, used by Emacs native compilation, GCC Rust, GDC, Cython.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

Copy-and-Patch as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

Stencil-based binary stitching from OOPSLA 2021, now shipping in CPython 3.13/3.14.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

DynASM as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

Mike Pall's preprocessor-driven assembler with runtime patching; LuaJIT's secret weapon.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

golang-asm as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

Go's internal assembler exported as a library, already used by Mochi's vm2jit.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

MLIR as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

Multi-Level IR, dialect framework, the foundation under Mojo, IREE, and OpenXLA.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

C as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

The lowest-cognitive-load path: emit C, let GCC/Clang do the rest.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

TCC, chibicc, Cuik as Reference Points for Mochi

"How small can a useful native backend be?"

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

Wasmtime AOT as a Code-Generation Backend for Mochi

"Mochi → Wasm → wasmtime compile → native": skip the backend, use the wasm ecosystem.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

Emitting Object Files Directly for Mochi

What it takes to write a valid ELF/Mach-O/COFF from a backend's raw bytes.

Research › Native Code Emission › Code Generation Backends ›

Hostable JIT/AOT Library Survey for Mochi

The "honorable mentions" beyond LLVM/Cranelift/MIR/QBE.