research-article

The Intel labs Haskell research compiler

Authors:

Todd A. AndersonAuthors Info & Claims

Haskell '13: Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell

Pages 105 - 116

https://doi.org/10.1145/2503778.2503779

Published: 23 September 2013 Publication History

Abstract

The Glasgow Haskell Compiler (GHC) is a well supported optimizing compiler for the Haskell programming language, along with its own extensions to the language and libraries. Haskell's lazy semantics imposes a runtime model which is in general difficult to implement efficiently. GHC achieves good performance across a wide variety of programs via aggressive optimization taking advantage of the lack of side effects, and by targeting a carefully tuned virtual machine. The Intel Labs Haskell Research Compiler uses GHC as a frontend, but provides a new whole-program optimizing backend by compiling the GHC intermediate representation to a relatively generic functional language compilation platform. We found that GHC's external Core language was relatively easy to use, but reusing GHC's libraries and achieving full compatibility were harder. For certain classes of programs, our platform provides substantial performance benefits over GHC alone, performing 2x faster than GHC with the LLVM backend on selected modern performance-oriented benchmarks; for other classes of programs, the benefits of GHC's tuned virtual machine continue to outweigh the benefits of more aggressive whole program optimization. Overall we achieve parity with GHC with the LLVM backend. In this paper, we describe our Haskell compiler stack, its implementation and optimization approach, and present benchmark results comparing it to GHC.

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Čugurović MVujošević Janičić MJovanović VWürthinger T(2024)GraalSP: Polyglot, efficient, and robust machine learning-based static profilerJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112058213(112058)Online publication date: Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112058
Bhat SGrosser T(2022)Lambda the Ultimate SSA: Optimizing Functional Programs in SSA2022 IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization (CGO)10.1109/CGO53902.2022.9741279(1-11)Online publication date: 2-Apr-2022
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Index Terms

The Intel labs Haskell research compiler
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

Haskell '13: Proceedings of the 2013 ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell

September 2013

158 pages

ISBN:9781450323833

DOI:10.1145/2503778

Program Chair:
Chung-chieh Shan
Indiana University, USA

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 48, Issue 12
Haskell '13
December 2013
149 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/2578854
Editor:
Mark W. Bailey
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2013 ACM.

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SIGPLAN: ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages

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New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 23 September 2013

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ICFP'13

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SIGPLAN

ICFP'13: ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming

September 23 - 24, 2013

Massachusetts, Boston, USA

Acceptance Rates

Haskell '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 13 of 33 submissions, 39%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 57 of 143 submissions, 40%

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ICFP '25

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sigplan

ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming

October 12 - 18, 2025

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Cited By

Čugurović MVujošević Janičić MJovanović VWürthinger T(2024)GraalSP: Polyglot, efficient, and robust machine learning-based static profilerJournal of Systems and Software10.1016/j.jss.2024.112058213(112058)Online publication date: Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2024.112058
Bhat SGrosser T(2022)Lambda the Ultimate SSA: Optimizing Functional Programs in SSA2022 IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Code Generation and Optimization (CGO)10.1109/CGO53902.2022.9741279(1-11)Online publication date: 2-Apr-2022
https://doi.org/10.1109/CGO53902.2022.9741279
Zhai KTownsend RLairmore LKim MEdwards SNicolescu GGerstlauer A(2015)Hardware synthesis from a recursive functional languageProceedings of the 10th International Conference on Hardware/Software Codesign and System Synthesis10.5555/2830840.2830850(83-93)Online publication date: 4-Oct-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2830840.2830850
Perez INilsson H(2015)Bridging the GUI gap with reactive values and relationsACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2887747.280431650:12(47-58)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2887747.2804316
Perez INilsson HLippmeier B(2015)Bridging the GUI gap with reactive values and relationsProceedings of the 2015 ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Haskell10.1145/2804302.2804316(47-58)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2804302.2804316
Zhai KTownsend RLairmore LKim MEdwards S(2015)Hardware synthesis from a recursive functional language2015 International Conference on Hardware/Software Codesign and System Synthesis (CODES+ISSS)10.1109/CODESISSS.2015.7331371(83-93)Online publication date: Oct-2015
https://doi.org/10.1109/CODESISSS.2015.7331371
Liu HDay LGlew NAnderson TBarik RBerthold JSheeran MNewton R(2014)Native offload of Haskell repa programs to integrated GPUsProceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGPLAN workshop on Functional high-performance computing10.1145/2636228.2636236(87-97)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2636228.2636236
Fourtounis GPapaspyrou NBerthold JSheeran MNewton R(2014)An efficient representation for lazy constructors using 64-bit pointersProceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGPLAN workshop on Functional high-performance computing10.1145/2636228.2636232(23-30)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2636228.2636232
Petersen LAnderson TLiu HGlew NPlasmeijer R(2013)Measuring the Haskell GapProceedings of the 25th symposium on Implementation and Application of Functional Languages10.1145/2620678.2620685(61-72)Online publication date: 28-Aug-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2620678.2620685

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