Optimizing compiler

An optimizing compiler is a compiler designed to generate code that is optimized in aspects such as minimizing program execution time, memory use, storage size, and power consumption.

Optimization is generally implemented as a sequence of optimizing transformations, algorithms that transform code to produce semantically equivalent code optimized for some aspect.

Optimization is generally CPU and memory intensive. In practice, factors such as available memory and a programmer's willingness to wait for compilation limit the optimizations that a compiler might provide.

Research indicates that some optimization problems are NP-complete, or even undecidable.

In general, optimization cannot produce optimal output, and in fact, is impossible in a general sense since optimizing for one aspect may degrade performance for another. Rather, optimizations are heuristic methods for improving resource usage in typical programs.^[1]