From SSA back to GIMPLE

[Jose .]

Hi all,

this is my first post in this mailing list. I'm trying to understand
GCC 4 as part of my research, but I'm finding questions which are
difficult to answer just with online documentation.

I understand that the whole process of compiling a C file involves
GENERIC->GIMPLE->SSA->GIMPLE->RTL

If I'm not wrong, GCC currently cannot go from SSA to RTL directly.
What I don't understand is what happens with all versions of the same
variable when doing the SSA->GIMPLE step. Are they mixed into a single
variable declaration? Are they treated as separate variables and
handled later by the register allocator?

Thanks in advance.
Jose.