A heuristic algorithm for optimizing page selection instructions

Page switching is a technique that increases the memory in microcontrollers without extending the address buses. This technique is widely used in the design of 8-bit MCUs. In this paper, we present an algorithm to reduce the overhead of page switching. To pursue small code size, we place the emphasis on the allocation of functions into suitable pages with a heuristic algorithm, thereby the cost-effective placement of page selection instructions. Our experimental results showed the optimization achieved a reduction in code size of 13.2 percent.