Interestingly, the paper states that StoneCutter uses LLVM to output Chisel[1,2]. However, Chisel has its own compiler framework called FIRRTL[3]. It seems the

Interestingly, the paper states that StoneCutter uses LLVM to output Chisel[1,2]. However, Chisel has its own compiler framework called FIRRTL[3]. It seems the reason for LLVM as a step before getting to Chisel is the optimization passes; the paper specifically lists "loop invariant code motion, instruction combining, control flow graph simplification and constant propagation." FIRRTL has optimizations as well, but that paper states: "The three major optimization transformations implemented are constant propagation, common subexpression elimination, and dead code elimination." [1] https://www.chisel-lang.org https://www.chisel-lang.org [3] https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~krste/papers/chisel-dac2012.pdf https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~krste/papers/chisel-dac201... [2] https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~magyar/documents/firrtl-iccad17.pdf https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~magyar/documents/firrtl-ic...