diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 2b1924f2b..5f114f4c9 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@ find_package(MLIR REQUIRED CONFIG)
 message(STATUS "Using MLIRConfig.cmake in: ${MLIR_DIR}")
 message(STATUS "Using LLVMConfig.cmake in: ${LLVM_DIR}")
 
+set(LLVM_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_INTDIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin)
+set(LLVM_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_INTDIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/lib)
+set(MLIR_BINARY_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR})
+
 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${MLIR_CMAKE_DIR}")
 list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${LLVM_CMAKE_DIR}")
 
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 42b2d03f7..f6298c270 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,15 +1,6 @@
 get_property(dialect_libs GLOBAL PROPERTY MLIR_DIALECT_LIBS)
 get_property(conversion_libs GLOBAL PROPERTY MLIR_CONVERSION_LIBS)
 
-set(gc_opt_libs 
-        ${dialect_libs}
-        ${conversion_libs} 
-        MLIROptLib 
-        GCPasses)
-add_llvm_executable(gc-opt gc-opt.cpp)
-
-target_link_libraries(gc-opt PRIVATE ${gc_opt_libs})
-llvm_update_compile_flags(gc-opt)
-mlir_check_all_link_libraries(gc-opt)
-
 add_subdirectory(dnnl)
+add_subdirectory(gc-cpu-runner)
+add_subdirectory(gc-opt)
diff --git a/src/gc-cpu-runner/CMakeLists.txt b/src/gc-cpu-runner/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..eb45c93b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/gc-cpu-runner/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+# the dependency list copied from mlir/tools/mlir-cpu-runner/CMakeLists.txt of upstream
+set(LLVM_LINK_COMPONENTS
+  Core
+  Support
+  nativecodegen
+  native
+)
+set(MLIR_LINK_COMPONENTS
+  MLIRAnalysis
+  MLIRBuiltinToLLVMIRTranslation
+  MLIRExecutionEngine
+  MLIRIR
+  MLIRJitRunner
+  MLIRLLVMDialect
+  MLIRLLVMToLLVMIRTranslation
+  MLIRToLLVMIRTranslationRegistration
+  MLIRParser
+  MLIRTargetLLVMIRExport
+  MLIRSupport
+)
+
+if(GC_MLIR_CXX_FLAGS)
+  set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} ${GC_MLIR_CXX_FLAGS}")
+endif()
+
+#LLVM_LINK_COMPONENTS is processed by LLVM cmake in add_llvm_executable
+set(gc_cpu_runner_libs
+        ${MLIR_LINK_COMPONENTS})
+add_llvm_executable(gc-cpu-runner gc-cpu-runner.cpp)
+
+target_link_libraries(gc-cpu-runner PRIVATE ${gc_cpu_runner_libs})
+llvm_update_compile_flags(gc-cpu-runner)
+mlir_check_all_link_libraries(gc-cpu-runner)
diff --git a/src/gc-cpu-runner/gc-cpu-runner.cpp b/src/gc-cpu-runner/gc-cpu-runner.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3ece8f2ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/gc-cpu-runner/gc-cpu-runner.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2024 Intel Corporation
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions
+ * and limitations under the License.
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+ */
+
+#include "mlir/Dialect/LLVMIR/LLVMDialect.h"
+#include "mlir/ExecutionEngine/JitRunner.h"
+#include "mlir/ExecutionEngine/OptUtils.h"
+#include "mlir/IR/Dialect.h"
+#include "mlir/Target/LLVMIR/Dialect/All.h"
+
+#include "llvm/Support/InitLLVM.h"
+#include "llvm/Support/TargetSelect.h"
+#include <stdio.h>
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv) {
+  llvm::InitLLVM y(argc, argv);
+  llvm::InitializeNativeTarget();
+  llvm::InitializeNativeTargetAsmPrinter();
+  llvm::InitializeNativeTargetAsmParser();
+
+  mlir::DialectRegistry registry;
+  mlir::registerAllToLLVMIRTranslations(registry);
+
+  return mlir::JitRunnerMain(argc, argv, registry);
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/gc-opt/CMakeLists.txt b/src/gc-opt/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ff33375de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/gc-opt/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+set(gc_opt_libs 
+        ${dialect_libs}
+        ${conversion_libs} 
+        MLIROptLib 
+        GCPasses)
+if(GC_MLIR_CXX_FLAGS)
+    set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} ${GC_MLIR_CXX_FLAGS}")
+endif()
+
+add_llvm_executable(gc-opt gc-opt.cpp)
+
+target_link_libraries(gc-opt PRIVATE ${gc_opt_libs})
+llvm_update_compile_flags(gc-opt)
+mlir_check_all_link_libraries(gc-opt)
+
diff --git a/src/gc-opt.cpp b/src/gc-opt/gc-opt.cpp
similarity index 100%
rename from src/gc-opt.cpp
rename to src/gc-opt/gc-opt.cpp
diff --git a/test/CMakeLists.txt b/test/CMakeLists.txt
index 97bb57013..36d29abb2 100644
--- a/test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ set(GC_OPT_TEST_DEPENDS
         FileCheck count not
         # mlir-gen
         gc-opt
+        gc-cpu-runner
         GCUnitTests
         )
 
diff --git a/test/gc/cpu-runner/run.mlir b/test/gc/cpu-runner/run.mlir
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..406bf68d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/gc/cpu-runner/run.mlir
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+// RUN: gc-opt %s --convert-func-to-llvm --convert-cf-to-llvm | gc-cpu-runner -e main -entry-point-result=void | FileCheck --allow-empty %s
+func.func @main() {
+    return
+}
+// CHECK-NOT: any
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/lit.cfg.py b/test/lit.cfg.py
index c6867ec2a..0f67b5115 100644
--- a/test/lit.cfg.py
+++ b/test/lit.cfg.py
@@ -41,12 +41,12 @@
 
 # test_exec_root: The root path where tests should be run.
 config.test_exec_root = os.path.join(config.gc_obj_root, "test")
-config.gc_tools_dir = os.path.join(config.gc_obj_root, "src")
+config.gc_tools_dir = os.path.join(config.gc_obj_root, "bin")
 
 # Tweak the PATH to include the tools dir.
 llvm_config.with_environment("PATH", config.llvm_tools_dir, append_path=True)
 
 tool_dirs = [config.gc_tools_dir, config.llvm_tools_dir]
-tools = ["gc-opt"]
+tools = ["gc-opt", "gc-cpu-runner"]
 
 llvm_config.add_tool_substitutions(tools, tool_dirs)