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| <h1> |
| Extending LLVM: Adding instructions, intrinsics, types, etc. |
| </h1> |
| |
| <ol> |
| <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction and Warning</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#intrinsic">Adding a new intrinsic function</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#instruction">Adding a new instruction</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#sdnode">Adding a new SelectionDAG node</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#type">Adding a new type</a> |
| <ol> |
| <li><a href="#fund_type">Adding a new fundamental type</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#derived_type">Adding a new derived type</a></li> |
| </ol></li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <div class="doc_author"> |
| <p>Written by <a href="http://misha.brukman.net">Misha Brukman</a>, |
| Brad Jones, Nate Begeman, |
| and <a href="http://nondot.org/sabre">Chris Lattner</a></p> |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2> |
| <a name="introduction">Introduction and Warning</a> |
| </h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>During the course of using LLVM, you may wish to customize it for your |
| research project or for experimentation. At this point, you may realize that |
| you need to add something to LLVM, whether it be a new fundamental type, a new |
| intrinsic function, or a whole new instruction.</p> |
| |
| <p>When you come to this realization, stop and think. Do you really need to |
| extend LLVM? Is it a new fundamental capability that LLVM does not support at |
| its current incarnation or can it be synthesized from already pre-existing LLVM |
| elements? If you are not sure, ask on the <a |
| href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM-dev</a> list. The |
| reason is that extending LLVM will get involved as you need to update all the |
| different passes that you intend to use with your extension, and there are |
| <em>many</em> LLVM analyses and transformations, so it may be quite a bit of |
| work.</p> |
| |
| <p>Adding an <a href="#intrinsic">intrinsic function</a> is far easier than |
| adding an instruction, and is transparent to optimization passes. If your added |
| functionality can be expressed as a |
| function call, an intrinsic function is the method of choice for LLVM |
| extension.</p> |
| |
| <p>Before you invest a significant amount of effort into a non-trivial |
| extension, <span class="doc_warning">ask on the list</span> if what you are |
| looking to do can be done with already-existing infrastructure, or if maybe |
| someone else is already working on it. You will save yourself a lot of time and |
| effort by doing so.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2> |
| <a name="intrinsic">Adding a new intrinsic function</a> |
| </h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>Adding a new intrinsic function to LLVM is much easier than adding a new |
| instruction. Almost all extensions to LLVM should start as an intrinsic |
| function and then be turned into an instruction if warranted.</p> |
| |
| <ol> |
| <li><tt>llvm/docs/LangRef.html</tt>: |
| Document the intrinsic. Decide whether it is code generator specific and |
| what the restrictions are. Talk to other people about it so that you are |
| sure it's a good idea.</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/include/llvm/Intrinsics*.td</tt>: |
| Add an entry for your intrinsic. Describe its memory access characteristics |
| for optimization (this controls whether it will be DCE'd, CSE'd, etc). Note |
| that any intrinsic using the <tt>llvm_int_ty</tt> type for an argument will |
| be deemed by <tt>tblgen</tt> as overloaded and the corresponding suffix |
| will be required on the intrinsic's name.</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/Analysis/ConstantFolding.cpp</tt>: If it is possible to |
| constant fold your intrinsic, add support to it in the |
| <tt>canConstantFoldCallTo</tt> and <tt>ConstantFoldCall</tt> functions.</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/test/Regression/*</tt>: Add test cases for your test cases to the |
| test suite</li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| <p>Once the intrinsic has been added to the system, you must add code generator |
| support for it. Generally you must do the following steps:</p> |
| |
| <dl> |
| <dt>Add support to the C backend in <tt>lib/Target/CBackend/</tt></dt> |
| |
| <dd>Depending on the intrinsic, there are a few ways to implement this. For |
| most intrinsics, it makes sense to add code to lower your intrinsic in |
| <tt>LowerIntrinsicCall</tt> in <tt>lib/CodeGen/IntrinsicLowering.cpp</tt>. |
| Second, if it makes sense to lower the intrinsic to an expanded sequence of |
| C code in all cases, just emit the expansion in <tt>visitCallInst</tt> in |
| <tt>Writer.cpp</tt>. If the intrinsic has some way to express it with GCC |
| (or any other compiler) extensions, it can be conditionally supported based |
| on the compiler compiling the CBE output (see <tt>llvm.prefetch</tt> for an |
| example). Third, if the intrinsic really has no way to be lowered, just |
| have the code generator emit code that prints an error message and calls |
| abort if executed.</dd> |
| |
| <dt>Add support to the .td file for the target(s) of your choice in |
| <tt>lib/Target/*/*.td</tt>.</dt> |
| |
| <dd>This is usually a matter of adding a pattern to the .td file that matches |
| the intrinsic, though it may obviously require adding the instructions you |
| want to generate as well. There are lots of examples in the PowerPC and X86 |
| backend to follow.</dd> |
| </dl> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2> |
| <a name="sdnode">Adding a new SelectionDAG node</a> |
| </h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p>As with intrinsics, adding a new SelectionDAG node to LLVM is much easier |
| than adding a new instruction. New nodes are often added to help represent |
| instructions common to many targets. These nodes often map to an LLVM |
| instruction (add, sub) or intrinsic (byteswap, population count). In other |
| cases, new nodes have been added to allow many targets to perform a common task |
| (converting between floating point and integer representation) or capture more |
| complicated behavior in a single node (rotate).</p> |
| |
| <ol> |
| <li><tt>include/llvm/CodeGen/ISDOpcodes.h</tt>: |
| Add an enum value for the new SelectionDAG node.</li> |
| <li><tt>lib/CodeGen/SelectionDAG/SelectionDAG.cpp</tt>: |
| Add code to print the node to <tt>getOperationName</tt>. If your new node |
| can be evaluated at compile time when given constant arguments (such as an |
| add of a constant with another constant), find the <tt>getNode</tt> method |
| that takes the appropriate number of arguments, and add a case for your node |
| to the switch statement that performs constant folding for nodes that take |
| the same number of arguments as your new node.</li> |
| <li><tt>lib/CodeGen/SelectionDAG/LegalizeDAG.cpp</tt>: |
| Add code to <a href="CodeGenerator.html#selectiondag_legalize">legalize, |
| promote, and expand</a> the node as necessary. At a minimum, you will need |
| to add a case statement for your node in <tt>LegalizeOp</tt> which calls |
| LegalizeOp on the node's operands, and returns a new node if any of the |
| operands changed as a result of being legalized. It is likely that not all |
| targets supported by the SelectionDAG framework will natively support the |
| new node. In this case, you must also add code in your node's case |
| statement in <tt>LegalizeOp</tt> to Expand your node into simpler, legal |
| operations. The case for <tt>ISD::UREM</tt> for expanding a remainder into |
| a divide, multiply, and a subtract is a good example.</li> |
| <li><tt>lib/CodeGen/SelectionDAG/LegalizeDAG.cpp</tt>: |
| If targets may support the new node being added only at certain sizes, you |
| will also need to add code to your node's case statement in |
| <tt>LegalizeOp</tt> to Promote your node's operands to a larger size, and |
| perform the correct operation. You will also need to add code to |
| <tt>PromoteOp</tt> to do this as well. For a good example, see |
| <tt>ISD::BSWAP</tt>, |
| which promotes its operand to a wider size, performs the byteswap, and then |
| shifts the correct bytes right to emulate the narrower byteswap in the |
| wider type.</li> |
| <li><tt>lib/CodeGen/SelectionDAG/LegalizeDAG.cpp</tt>: |
| Add a case for your node in <tt>ExpandOp</tt> to teach the legalizer how to |
| perform the action represented by the new node on a value that has been |
| split into high and low halves. This case will be used to support your |
| node with a 64 bit operand on a 32 bit target.</li> |
| <li><tt>lib/CodeGen/SelectionDAG/DAGCombiner.cpp</tt>: |
| If your node can be combined with itself, or other existing nodes in a |
| peephole-like fashion, add a visit function for it, and call that function |
| from <tt></tt>. There are several good examples for simple combines you |
| can do; <tt>visitFABS</tt> and <tt>visitSRL</tt> are good starting places. |
| </li> |
| <li><tt>lib/Target/PowerPC/PPCISelLowering.cpp</tt>: |
| Each target has an implementation of the <tt>TargetLowering</tt> class, |
| usually in its own file (although some targets include it in the same |
| file as the DAGToDAGISel). The default behavior for a target is to |
| assume that your new node is legal for all types that are legal for |
| that target. If this target does not natively support your node, then |
| tell the target to either Promote it (if it is supported at a larger |
| type) or Expand it. This will cause the code you wrote in |
| <tt>LegalizeOp</tt> above to decompose your new node into other legal |
| nodes for this target.</li> |
| <li><tt>lib/Target/TargetSelectionDAG.td</tt>: |
| Most current targets supported by LLVM generate code using the DAGToDAG |
| method, where SelectionDAG nodes are pattern matched to target-specific |
| nodes, which represent individual instructions. In order for the targets |
| to match an instruction to your new node, you must add a def for that node |
| to the list in this file, with the appropriate type constraints. Look at |
| <tt>add</tt>, <tt>bswap</tt>, and <tt>fadd</tt> for examples.</li> |
| <li><tt>lib/Target/PowerPC/PPCInstrInfo.td</tt>: |
| Each target has a tablegen file that describes the target's instruction |
| set. For targets that use the DAGToDAG instruction selection framework, |
| add a pattern for your new node that uses one or more target nodes. |
| Documentation for this is a bit sparse right now, but there are several |
| decent examples. See the patterns for <tt>rotl</tt> in |
| <tt>PPCInstrInfo.td</tt>.</li> |
| <li>TODO: document complex patterns.</li> |
| <li><tt>llvm/test/Regression/CodeGen/*</tt>: Add test cases for your new node |
| to the test suite. <tt>llvm/test/Regression/CodeGen/X86/bswap.ll</tt> is |
| a good example.</li> |
| </ol> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2> |
| <a name="instruction">Adding a new instruction</a> |
| </h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p><span class="doc_warning">WARNING: adding instructions changes the bitcode |
| format, and it will take some effort to maintain compatibility with |
| the previous version.</span> Only add an instruction if it is absolutely |
| necessary.</p> |
| |
| <ol> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/include/llvm/Instruction.def</tt>: |
| add a number for your instruction and an enum name</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/include/llvm/Instructions.h</tt>: |
| add a definition for the class that will represent your instruction</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/include/llvm/Support/InstVisitor.h</tt>: |
| add a prototype for a visitor to your new instruction type</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/AsmParser/Lexer.l</tt>: |
| add a new token to parse your instruction from assembly text file</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/AsmParser/llvmAsmParser.y</tt>: |
| add the grammar on how your instruction can be read and what it will |
| construct as a result</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/Bitcode/Reader/Reader.cpp</tt>: |
| add a case for your instruction and how it will be parsed from bitcode</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/VMCore/Instruction.cpp</tt>: |
| add a case for how your instruction will be printed out to assembly</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/VMCore/Instructions.cpp</tt>: |
| implement the class you defined in |
| <tt>llvm/include/llvm/Instructions.h</tt></li> |
| |
| <li>Test your instruction</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/Target/*</tt>: |
| Add support for your instruction to code generators, or add a lowering |
| pass.</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/test/Regression/*</tt>: add your test cases to the test suite.</li> |
| |
| </ol> |
| |
| <p>Also, you need to implement (or modify) any analyses or passes that you want |
| to understand this new instruction.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| <h2> |
| <a name="type">Adding a new type</a> |
| </h2> |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <p><span class="doc_warning">WARNING: adding new types changes the bitcode |
| format, and will break compatibility with currently-existing LLVM |
| installations.</span> Only add new types if it is absolutely necessary.</p> |
| |
| <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
| <h3> |
| <a name="fund_type">Adding a fundamental type</a> |
| </h3> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <ol> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/include/llvm/Type.h</tt>: |
| add enum for the new type; add static <tt>Type*</tt> for this type</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/VMCore/Type.cpp</tt>: |
| add mapping from <tt>TypeID</tt> => <tt>Type*</tt>; |
| initialize the static <tt>Type*</tt></li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/AsmReader/Lexer.l</tt>: |
| add ability to parse in the type from text assembly</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/AsmReader/llvmAsmParser.y</tt>: |
| add a token for that type</li> |
| |
| </ol> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- ======================================================================= --> |
| <h3> |
| <a name="derived_type">Adding a derived type</a> |
| </h3> |
| |
| <div> |
| |
| <ol> |
| <li><tt>llvm/include/llvm/Type.h</tt>: |
| add enum for the new type; add a forward declaration of the type |
| also</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/include/llvm/DerivedTypes.h</tt>: |
| add new class to represent new class in the hierarchy; add forward |
| declaration to the TypeMap value type</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/VMCore/Type.cpp</tt>: |
| add support for derived type to: |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| std::string getTypeDescription(const Type &Ty, |
| std::vector<const Type*> &TypeStack) |
| bool TypesEqual(const Type *Ty, const Type *Ty2, |
| std::map<const Type*, const Type*> & EqTypes) |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| add necessary member functions for type, and factory methods</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/AsmReader/Lexer.l</tt>: |
| add ability to parse in the type from text assembly</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/BitCode/Writer/Writer.cpp</tt>: |
| modify <tt>void BitcodeWriter::outputType(const Type *T)</tt> to serialize |
| your type</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/BitCode/Reader/Reader.cpp</tt>: |
| modify <tt>const Type *BitcodeReader::ParseType()</tt> to read your data |
| type</li> |
| |
| <li><tt>llvm/lib/VMCore/AsmWriter.cpp</tt>: |
| modify |
| <div class="doc_code"> |
| <pre> |
| void calcTypeName(const Type *Ty, |
| std::vector<const Type*> &TypeStack, |
| std::map<const Type*,std::string> &TypeNames, |
| std::string & Result) |
| </pre> |
| </div> |
| to output the new derived type |
| </li> |
| |
| |
| </ol> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| </div> |
| |
| <!-- *********************************************************************** --> |
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