The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 07, 1998
Filed:
Jul. 03, 1996
Jeffrey B Caldwell, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Harry Charles Muttart, Cupertino, CA (US);
David Henry Gross, Campbell, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A compiler for compiling and optimizing a COBOL program. The invention is embodied in a front end that reads the COBOL program and generates an intermediate representation that can be optimized by later stages of the compiler. After reading the COBOL program, the compiler first coalesces the paragraphs into procedures. If a paragraph's preceding paragraph is not a potential exit point, then the paragraphs are coalesced. Next, the basic block counts of the procedures are estimated. If a basic block count exceeds a predetermined limit, then basic blocks are sliced from the procedure, placed into a new procedure, and a call to the new procedure is inserted into the sliced procedure. Finally, the compiler generates a super-procedure from the sliced procedures. The super-procedure implements the control flow of the original COBOL program. Because the resulting program behavior resembles that of a C, C++, or Fortran program, the compiler can use C, C++, or Fortran compiler technology to optimize the COBOL program.