[Qemu-devel] Question - Is precise assembly code transpilation possible?

[Adeel Mujahid]

Hello,


[sorry in advance -- this is bit of an off-topic / academic question w.r.t 
qemu-devel]


Given the userspace virtualization capability of qemu, is it possible to ship 
the code that deals with source-to-source mapping of assembly code (say MIPS64 
<-> AMD64) as a separate library, so we can potentially build assembly language 
converter utility?


For instance, consider a C/C++ project with couple of .asm/.S files containing 
Intel or ATT flavored assembly code for AMD64, and the aim is to port to 
AARCH64 -- is it even a deterministic problem to transpile precise and bug free 
AARCH64 assembly code, given the full usage context and all code paths at our 
disposal? In my understanding, qemu is doing something very similar; but I am 
not sure as there might be missing optimization opportunities, which render 
machine converted asm code less likely to match the one hand-roled by humans.


To this date, there are not many tools for assembly language, that convert 
between different dialects (ATT to Intel) or various architecture instruction 
sets. I have heard that LLVM has certain project, which aim to convert asmA -> 
via IR -> asmB but I haven't found it yet.


-- best

Adeel