Importance of heap specialization in pointer analysis

Specialization of heap objects is critical for pointer analysis to effectively analyze complex memory activity. This paper discusses heap specialization with respect to call chains. Due to the sheer number of distinct call chains, exhaustive specialization can be cumbersome. On the other hand, insufficient specialization can miss valuable opportunities to prevent spurious data flow, which results in not only reduced accuracy but also increased overhead.In determining whether further specialization will be fruitful, an object's escape information can be exploited. From empirical study, we found that restriction based on escape information is often, but not always, sufficient at prohibiting the explosive nature of specialization.For in-depth case study, four representative benchmarks are selected. For each benchmark, we vary the degree of heap specialization and examine its impact on analysis results and time. To provide better visibility into the impact, we present the points-to set and pointed-to-by set sizes in the form of histograms.