Compilation system and method

A method of compiling a source program that comprises a plurality of source operations and one or more loops and/or branches, thereby defining a non-linear sequence of execution of the source operations;

• wherein the method comprises:
• stepping through the sequence including looping through the loops and/or branching at the branches, and mapping each source operation to a respective function call each time encountered during the stepping through of the sequence;
• intercepting the function calls, converting each into a corresponding trace entry comprising a set of one or more trace operations, and inserting the trace entries one after another into a trace buffer to thereby form a linear trace of the source program;
• and
• transferring each of a succession of trace instances from the trace buffer to at least one compiler for compilation into corresponding compiled code, each trace instance comprising a current instance of the linear trace in the trace buffer or a portion thereof,
• receiving the compiled code compiled from each trace instance;
• and
• sending the compiled code to at least one destination device to be executed.

A software toolchain for use in compiling a source program that comprises a plurality of source operations and one or more loops and/or branches, thereby defining a non-linear sequence of execution of the source operations;

• wherein the software toolchain is embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage and is configured so as when run on a host computer to perform operations of:
• stepping through the sequence including looping through the loops and/or branching at the branches, and mapping each source operation to a respective function call each time encountered during the stepping through of the sequence;
• intercepting the function calls, converting each into a corresponding trace entry comprising a set of trace operations, and inserting the trace entries one after another into a trace buffer to thereby form a linear trace of the source program;
• and
• transferring each of a succession of trace instances from the trace buffer to at least one compiler for compilation into a corresponding compiled code, each trace instance comprising a current instance of the linear trace in the trace buffer or a portion thereof,
• receiving the compiled code compiled from each trace instance;
• and
• sending the compiled code to a destination device to be executed.