ILMedium

ILMedium is a cross-language intermediate representation framework and runtime designed to serve as a common medium between language front-ends and back-end code generators. It provides a language-agnostic, portable IR that supports program analysis, optimization, and data exchange across compiler toolchains.

The architecture centers on a schema-driven IR consisting of entities such as modules, functions, basic blocks, instructions, types, and metadata. It includes a multilayer serialization format (compact binary and human-readable variants), a verification tool, and a library for parsing and emitting ILMedium data. A plugin-based optimizer and a set of adapters enable translation between ILMedium and target code representations.

History and governance: ILMedium emerged from academic and industry collaboration to address interoperability challenges among diverse compiler pipelines. It is maintained as an open-source project with an independent governance model, regular releases, and contributor guidelines. The project emphasizes stability, backward compatibility, and clear deprecation paths for schema changes.

Applications and impact: ILMedium is used in compiler research and development, enabling cross-language instrumentation, profiling, and optimization experiments. It serves as a testing ground for new IR concepts and as a bridge for experimental front-ends to target back-ends without requiring bespoke translators. The framework also supports tooling for static analysis, verification, and teaching.

See also and licensing: The project is distributed under an open-source license and hosts documentation and community forums. It is part of a broader ecosystem of intermediate representations used in modern compiler research and toolchains.