I spent some time studying the subject a few years ago. Most of the current efforts I saw were about improving alias analysis. Could have been a skewed view of

I spent some time studying the subject a few years ago. Most of the current efforts I saw were about improving alias analysis. Could have been a skewed view of the thing, but the researchers I talked to seemed to feel like it was. Some compiler devs I've talked to do too. In general it does unlock a lot of opportunities when it comes to optimization.