Chris Lattner
Encyclopedia
Chris Lattner is an American software developer, best known as the primary author of the Low Level Virtual Machine
project and related projects, such as the clang
compiler. He is currently the chief architect of the Compiler Group at Apple Inc.
, Oregon
, graduating in 2000. While in Oregon, he worked as an operating systems developer, enhancing Sequent Computer Systems
's DYNIX/ptx.
as a research assistant and M.Sc. student. While working with Vikram Adve, he designed and began the implementation of LLVM, an innovative infrastructure for optimizing compilers
, which was the subject of his 2002 MSc thesis. He completed a PhD in 2005, researching new techniques for optimizing pointer-intensive programs and adding them to LLVM. In 2005, Apple Inc. hired Lattner to work with a newly-formed team of LLVM developers.
Lattner's recent work involves designing, implementing, and evangelizing the LLVM and Clang
compilers, as well as a new set of assemblers and disassemblers. This work may eventually replace the GCC compiler suite on a broad variety of systems. It is already used in Apple systems.
In June 2010, the ACM
's Special Interest Group
on programming language
s (SIGPLAN
) gave Lattner its inaugural Programming Languages Software Award "for his design and development of the Low Level Virtual Machine", noting that Professor Adve has stated that "Lattner’s talent as a compiler architect, together with his programming skills, technical vision, and leadership ability were crucial to the success of LLVM."
Chris contributed a chapter to the "Architecture of Open Source Applications" book: AOSA LLVM Chapter
Low Level Virtual Machine
The Low Level Virtual Machine is a compiler infrastructure written in C++ that is designed for compile-time, link-time, run-time, and "idle-time" optimization of programs written in arbitrary programming languages...
project and related projects, such as the clang
Clang
Clang is a compiler front end for the C, C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++ programming languages. It uses the Low Level Virtual Machine as its back end, and Clang has been part of LLVM releases since LLVM 2.6....
compiler. He is currently the chief architect of the Compiler Group at Apple Inc.
Background
Lattner studied Computer Science at the University of PortlandUniversity of Portland
The University of Portland is a private Roman Catholic university located in Portland, Oregon. It is affiliated with the Congregation of Holy Cross and is the sister school of the University of Notre Dame. Founded in 1901, UP has a student body of about 3,600 students...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, graduating in 2000. While in Oregon, he worked as an operating systems developer, enhancing Sequent Computer Systems
Sequent Computer Systems
Sequent Computer Systems, or Sequent, was a computer company that designed and manufactured multiprocessing computer systems. They were among the pioneers in high-performance symmetric multiprocessing open systems, innovating in both hardware and software Sequent Computer Systems, or Sequent, was...
's DYNIX/ptx.
LLVM
In late 2000, Lattner joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
as a research assistant and M.Sc. student. While working with Vikram Adve, he designed and began the implementation of LLVM, an innovative infrastructure for optimizing compilers
Compiler optimization
Compiler optimization is the process of tuning the output of a compiler to minimize or maximize some attributes of an executable computer program. The most common requirement is to minimize the time taken to execute a program; a less common one is to minimize the amount of memory occupied...
, which was the subject of his 2002 MSc thesis. He completed a PhD in 2005, researching new techniques for optimizing pointer-intensive programs and adding them to LLVM. In 2005, Apple Inc. hired Lattner to work with a newly-formed team of LLVM developers.
Lattner's recent work involves designing, implementing, and evangelizing the LLVM and Clang
Clang
Clang is a compiler front end for the C, C++, Objective-C, and Objective-C++ programming languages. It uses the Low Level Virtual Machine as its back end, and Clang has been part of LLVM releases since LLVM 2.6....
compilers, as well as a new set of assemblers and disassemblers. This work may eventually replace the GCC compiler suite on a broad variety of systems. It is already used in Apple systems.
In June 2010, the ACM
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
's Special Interest Group
Special Interest Group
A Special Interest Group is a community with an interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to effect or to produce solutions within their particular field, and may communicate, meet, and organize conferences...
on programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
s (SIGPLAN
SIGPLAN
SIGPLAN is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on programming languages.- Conferences :* Principles of Programming Languages * Programming Language Design and Implementation...
) gave Lattner its inaugural Programming Languages Software Award "for his design and development of the Low Level Virtual Machine", noting that Professor Adve has stated that "Lattner’s talent as a compiler architect, together with his programming skills, technical vision, and leadership ability were crucial to the success of LLVM."
Chris contributed a chapter to the "Architecture of Open Source Applications" book: AOSA LLVM Chapter