--- a/hotspot/src/share/vm/adlc/archDesc.cpp	Tue Oct 09 12:40:05 2012 -0700
+++ b/hotspot/src/share/vm/adlc/archDesc.cpp	Tue Oct 09 16:09:31 2012 -0700
@@ -221,6 +221,7 @@
       _register = NULL;
       _encode = NULL;
       _pipeline = NULL;
+      _frame = NULL;
 }
 
 ArchDesc::~ArchDesc() {
@@ -648,7 +649,10 @@
 // Return the textual binding for a given CPP flag name.
 // Return NULL if there is no binding, or it has been #undef-ed.
 char* ArchDesc::get_preproc_def(const char* flag) {
-  SourceForm* deff = (SourceForm*) _preproc_table[flag];
+  // In case of syntax errors, flag may take the value NULL.
+  SourceForm* deff = NULL;
+  if (flag != NULL)
+    deff = (SourceForm*) _preproc_table[flag];
   return (deff == NULL) ? NULL : deff->_code;
 }
 
@@ -803,7 +807,9 @@
     while (i++ <= 15)  fputc(' ', errfile);
     fprintf(errfile, "%-8s:", pref);
     vfprintf(errfile, fmt, args);
-    fprintf(errfile, "\n"); }
+    fprintf(errfile, "\n");
+    fflush(errfile);
+  }
   return 1;
 }
 
@@ -855,8 +861,14 @@
 
   // Check constraints on result's register class
   const char *result_class = opForm.constrained_reg_class();
-  if (!result_class) opForm.dump();
-  assert( result_class, "Resulting register class was not defined for operand");
+  if (result_class == NULL) {
+    opForm.dump();
+    syntax_err(opForm._linenum,
+               "Use of an undefined result class for operand: %s",
+               opForm._ident);
+    abort();
+  }
+
   regMask = reg_class_to_reg_mask( result_class );
 
   return regMask;
@@ -865,8 +877,14 @@
 // Obtain the name of the RegMask for an InstructForm
 const char *ArchDesc::reg_mask(InstructForm &inForm) {
   const char *result = inForm.reduce_result();
-  assert( result,
-          "Did not find result operand or RegMask for this instruction");
+
+  if (result == NULL) {
+    syntax_err(inForm._linenum,
+               "Did not find result operand or RegMask"
+               " for this instruction: %s",
+               inForm._ident);
+    abort();
+  }
 
   // Instructions producing 'Universe' use RegMask::Empty
   if( strcmp(result,"Universe")==0 ) {
@@ -875,10 +893,17 @@
 
   // Lookup this result operand and get its register class
   Form *form = (Form*)_globalNames[result];
-  assert( form, "Result operand must be defined");
+  if (form == NULL) {
+    syntax_err(inForm._linenum,
+               "Did not find result operand for result: %s", result);
+    abort();
+  }
   OperandForm *oper = form->is_operand();
-  if (oper == NULL) form->dump();
-  assert( oper, "Result must be an OperandForm");
+  if (oper == NULL) {
+    syntax_err(inForm._linenum, "Form is not an OperandForm:");
+    form->dump();
+    abort();
+  }
   return reg_mask( *oper );
 }
 
@@ -887,7 +912,13 @@
 char *ArchDesc::stack_or_reg_mask(OperandForm  &opForm) {
   // name of cisc_spillable version
   const char *reg_mask_name = reg_mask(opForm);
-  assert( reg_mask_name != NULL, "called with incorrect opForm");
+
+  if (reg_mask_name == NULL) {
+     syntax_err(opForm._linenum,
+                "Did not find reg_mask for opForm: %s",
+                opForm._ident);
+     abort();
+  }
 
   const char *stack_or = "STACK_OR_";
   int   length         = (int)strlen(stack_or) + (int)strlen(reg_mask_name) + 1;