Register Transfer Language


Register Transfer Language

(RTL) 1. A kind of hardware description language (HDL) usedin describing the registers of a computer or digitalelectronic system, and the way in which data is transferredbetween them.

2. An intermediate code for a machine with an infinite numberof registers, used for machine-independent optimisation.RTL was developed by Chris Fraser andJ. Davidson at the University of Arizonain the early 1980s. RTL is used by the GNU C compiler,gcc and by Davidson's VPCC (Very Portable C compiler).

["Quick Compilers Using Peephole Optimisation", Davidson etal, Soft. Prac. & Exp. 19(1):79-97 (Jan 1989)].