The optimizations currently supported by as are generation of density instructions where appropriate and automatic branch target alignment.
The Xtensa instruction set has a code density option that provides 16-bit versions of some of the most commonly used opcodes. Use of these opcodes can significantly reduce code size. When possible, the assembler automatically translates generic instructions from the core Xtensa instruction set into equivalent instructions from the Xtensa code density option. This translation can be disabled by using specific opcodes (Section 42.2.1 Opcode Names), by using the -no-density command-line option (Section 42.1 Command Line Options), or by using the no-density directive (Section 42.5.1 density).
It is a good idea not to use the density instructions directly. The assembler will automatically select dense instructions where possible. If you later need to avoid using the code density option, you can disable it in the assembler without having to modify the code.
The Xtensa assembler will automatically align certain instructions, both to optimize performance and to satisfy architectural requirements.
When the -target-align command-line option is enabled (Section 42.1 Command Line Options), the assembler attempts to widen density instructions preceding a branch target so that the target instruction does not cross a 4-byte boundary. Similarly, the assembler also attempts to align each instruction following a call instruction. If there are not enough preceding safe density instructions to align a target, no widening will be performed. This alignment has the potential to reduce branch penalties at some expense in code size. The assembler will not attempt to align labels with the prefixes .Ln and .LM, since these labels are used for debugging information and are not typically branch targets.
The LOOP family of instructions must be aligned on either a 1 or 2 mod 4 byte boundary. The assembler knows about this restriction and inserts the minimal number of 2 or 3 byte no-op instructions to satisfy it. When no-op instructions are added, any label immediately preceding the original loop will be moved in order to refer to the loop instruction, not the newly generated no-op instruction.
Similarly, the ENTRY instruction must be aligned on a 0 mod 4 byte boundary. The assembler satisfies this requirement by inserting zero bytes when required. In addition, labels immediately preceding the ENTRY instruction will be moved to the newly aligned instruction location.