LLVM Clang 3.5 Brings Some Compiler Performance Improvements

If all goes well, LLVM 3.5 will be released today. While we have already delivered some LLVM/Clang benchmarks of the 3.5 SVN code, over the days ahead we will be delivering more benchmarks of the updated compiler stack -- including looking at its performance against the in-development GCC 5.0. For getting this latest series of compiler benchmarking at Phoronix started, here's some fresh numbers of LLVM Clang 3.4 compared to a recent release candidate of LLVM Clang 3.5.

This article is using a CompuLab Intense-PC with Intel Core i7 3517UE Ivy Bridge processor for LLVM Clang 3.4 vs. LLVM Clang 3.5 benchmarking. The host system was Ubuntu 14.04 x86_64 and was running off the Linux 3.17 development kernel. Both compilers were built in their optimized release mode (--disable-assertions --enable-optimized) for the core-avx-i CPU. Aside from switching out LLVM Clang 3.4 for LLVM Clang 3.5 RC4, no other system changes were made.

All of these compiler benchmarks were carried out by the Phoronix Test Suite in its usual fashion. The CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS were maintained the same during benchmarking. If anyone has any feedback on our compiler benchmarking please let me know via the forums or on Twitter.