The ARES High-Level Intermediate Representation

The LLVM intermediate representation (IR) lacks semantic constructs for denoting common high-performance operations such as parallel and concurrent execution, communication, and synchronization. Currently, representing such semantics in LLVM requires either extending the intermediate form (a significant undertaking) or the use of ad hoc indirect means such as encoding them as intrinsics and/or the use of metadata constructs. In this paper we discuss a work in progress to explore the design and implementation of a new compilation stage and associated high-level intermediate form that is situated between the abstract syntax tree and LLVM's IR. This high-level representation is a superset of LLVM IR and supports the direct representation of these common parallel computing constructs, together with the infrastructure for supporting analysis and transformation passes on this representation.