<s>
In	O
software	O
engineering	O
,	O
gold	O
is	O
a	O
linker	B-Application
for	O
ELF	O
files	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
became	O
an	O
official	O
GNU	B-Application
package	I-Application
and	O
was	O
added	O
to	O
binutils	B-Application
in	O
March	O
2008	O
and	O
first	O
released	O
in	O
binutils	B-Application
version	O
2.19	O
.	O
gold	O
was	O
developed	O
by	O
Ian	O
Lance	O
Taylor	O
and	O
a	O
small	O
team	O
at	O
Google	B-Application
.	I-Application
</s>
<s>
The	O
motivation	O
for	O
writing	O
gold	O
was	O
to	O
make	O
a	O
linker	B-Application
that	O
is	O
faster	O
than	O
the	O
GNU	B-Application
linker	I-Application
,	O
especially	O
for	O
large	O
applications	B-Application
coded	O
in	O
C++	B-Language
.	O
</s>
<s>
Unlike	O
the	O
GNU	B-Application
linker	I-Application
,	O
gold	O
does	O
not	O
use	O
the	O
BFD	B-Application
library	I-Application
to	O
process	O
object	B-Application
files	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
While	O
this	O
limits	O
the	O
object	B-Application
file	I-Application
formats	I-Application
it	O
can	O
process	O
to	O
ELF	O
only	O
,	O
it	O
is	O
also	O
claimed	O
to	O
result	O
in	O
a	O
cleaner	O
and	O
faster	O
implementation	O
without	O
an	O
additional	O
abstraction	O
layer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
author	O
cited	O
complete	O
removal	O
of	O
BFD	O
as	O
a	O
reason	O
to	O
create	O
a	O
new	O
linker	B-Application
from	O
scratch	O
rather	O
than	O
incrementally	O
improve	O
the	O
GNU	B-Application
linker	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
To	O
specify	O
gold	O
through	O
a	O
compiler	B-Language
option	I-Language
,	O
one	O
can	O
use	O
the	O
gcc	B-Application
option	O
-fuse-ld	O
=	O
gold	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
after	O
Google	B-Application
's	I-Application
interest	O
has	O
moved	O
to	O
LLVM	B-Application
.	O
</s>
