An Optimizing Compiler for Lexically Scoped LISP

Abstract

We are developing an optimizing compiler for a dialect of the LISP language. The current target architecture is the S-I, a multiprocessing supercomputer designed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. While LISP is usually thought of as a language primarily for symbolic processing and list manipulation, this compiler is also intended to compete with the S-1 PASCAL and FORTRAN compilers for quality of compiled numerical code. The S-1 is designed for extremely high-speed signal processing as well as for symbolic computation; it provides primitive operations on vectors of floating-point and complex numbers. The LISP compiler is designed to exploit the architecture heavily.