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Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
2<html><head><title>llvm Assembly Language Reference Manual</title></head>
3<body bgcolor=white>
4
5<table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0>
6<tr><td>&nbsp; <font size=+5 color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino,Times,Roman"><b>llvm Assembly Language Reference Manual</b></font></td>
7</tr></table>
8
9<ol>
10 <li><a href="#abstract">Abstract</a>
11 <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a>
12 <li><a href="#identifiers">Identifiers</a>
13 <li><a href="#typesystem">Type System</a>
14 <ol>
15 <li><a href="#t_primitive">Primitive Types</a>
16 <ol>
17 <li><a href="#t_classifications">Type Classifications</a>
18 </ol>
19 <li><a href="#t_derived">Derived Types</a>
20 <ol>
21 <li><a href="#t_array" >Array Type</a>
22 <li><a href="#t_method" >Method Type</a>
23 <li><a href="#t_pointer">Pointer Type</a>
24 <li><a href="#t_struct" >Structure Type</a>
25 <li><a href="#t_packed" >Packed Type</a>
26 </ol>
27 </ol>
28 <li><a href="#highlevel">High Level Structure</a>
29 <ol>
30 <li><a href="#modulestructure">Module Structure</a>
31 <li><a href="#methodstructure">Method Structure</a>
32 </ol>
33 <li><a href="#instref">Instruction Reference</a>
34 <ol>
35 <li><a href="#terminators">Terminator Instructions</a>
36 <ol>
37 <li><a href="#i_ret" >'<tt>ret</tt>' Instruction</a>
38 <li><a href="#i_br" >'<tt>br</tt>' Instruction</a>
39 <li><a href="#i_switch" >'<tt>switch</tt>' Instruction</a>
40 <li><a href="#i_callwith">'<tt>call .. with</tt>' Instruction</a>
41 </ol>
42 <li><a href="#unaryops">Unary Operations</a>
43 <ol>
44 <li><a href="#i_not" >'<tt>not</tt>' Instruction</a>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +000045 </ol>
46 <li><a href="#binaryops">Binary Operations</a>
47 <ol>
48 <li><a href="#i_add" >'<tt>add</tt>' Instruction</a>
49 <li><a href="#i_sub" >'<tt>sub</tt>' Instruction</a>
50 <li><a href="#i_mul" >'<tt>mul</tt>' Instruction</a>
51 <li><a href="#i_div" >'<tt>div</tt>' Instruction</a>
52 <li><a href="#i_rem" >'<tt>rem</tt>' Instruction</a>
53 <li><a href="#i_setcc">'<tt>set<i>cc</i></tt>' Instructions</a>
54 </ol>
55 <li><a href="#bitwiseops">Bitwise Binary Operations</a>
56 <ol>
57 <li><a href="#i_and">'<tt>and</tt>' Instruction</a>
58 <li><a href="#i_or" >'<tt>or</tt>' Instruction</a>
59 <li><a href="#i_xor">'<tt>xor</tt>' Instruction</a>
60 <li><a href="#i_shl">'<tt>shl</tt>' Instruction</a>
61 <li><a href="#i_shr">'<tt>shr</tt>' Instruction</a>
62 </ol>
63 <li><a href="#memoryops">Memory Access Operations</a>
64 <ol>
65 <li><a href="#i_malloc" >'<tt>malloc</tt>' Instruction</a>
66 <li><a href="#i_free" >'<tt>free</tt>' Instruction</a>
67 <li><a href="#i_alloca" >'<tt>alloca</tt>' Instruction</a>
68 <li><a href="#i_load" >'<tt>load</tt>' Instruction</a>
69 <li><a href="#i_store" >'<tt>store</tt>' Instruction</a>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +000070 <li><a href="#i_getelementptr">'<tt>getelementptr</tt>' Instruction</a>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +000071 </ol>
72 <li><a href="#otherops">Other Operations</a>
73 <ol>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +000074 <li><a href="#i_cast">'<tt>cast .. to</tt>' Instruction</a>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +000075 <li><a href="#i_call" >'<tt>call</tt>' Instruction</a>
76 <li><a href="#i_icall">'<tt>icall</tt>' Instruction</a>
77 <li><a href="#i_phi" >'<tt>phi</tt>' Instruction</a>
78 </ol>
79 <li><a href="#builtinfunc">Builtin Functions</a>
80 </ol>
81 <li><a href="#todo">TODO List</a>
82 <ol>
83 <li><a href="#exception">Exception Handling Instructions</a>
84 <li><a href="#synchronization">Synchronization Instructions</a>
85 </ol>
86 <li><a href="#extensions">Possible Extensions</a>
87 <ol>
88 <li><a href="#i_tailcall">'<tt>tailcall</tt>' Instruction</a>
89 <li><a href="#globalvars">Global Variables</a>
90 <li><a href="#explicitparrellelism">Explicit Parrellelism</a>
91 </ol>
92 <li><a href="#related">Related Work</a>
93</ol>
94
95
96<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
97<p><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
98<a name="abstract">Abstract
99</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
100<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
101
102<blockquote>
103 This document describes the LLVM assembly language IR/VM. LLVM is an SSA
104 based representation that attempts to be a useful midlevel IR by providing
105 type safety, low level operations, flexibility, and the capability to
106 represent 'all' high level languages cleanly.
107</blockquote>
108
109
110
111
112<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
113</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
114<a name="introduction">Introduction
115</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
116<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
117
118The LLVM is designed to exhibit a dual nature: on one hand, it is a useful compiler IR, on the other hand, it is a bytecode representation for dynamic compilation. We contend that this is a natural and good thing, making LLVM a natural form of communication between different compiler phases, and also between a static and dynamic compiler.<p>
119
120This dual nature leads to three different representations of LLVM (the human readable assembly representation, the compact bytecode representation, and the in memory, pointer based, representation). This document describes the human readable representation and notation.<p>
121
122The LLVM representation aims to be a light weight and low level while being expressive, type safe, and extensible at the same time. It aims to be a "universal IR" of sorts, by being at a low enough level that high level ideas may be cleanly mapped to it. By providing type safety, LLVM can be used as the target of optimizations: for example, through pointer analysis, it can be proven that a C automatic variable is never accessed outside of the current function... allowing it to be promoted to a simple SSA value instead of a memory location.<p>
123
124<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
125</ul><a name="wellformed"><h4><hr size=0>Well Formedness</h4><ul>
126
127It is important to note that this document describes 'well formed' llvm assembly language. There is a difference between what the parser accepts and what is considered 'well formed'. For example, the following instruction is syntactically okay, but not well formed:<p>
128
129<pre>
130 %x = <a href="#i_add">add</a> int 1, %x
131</pre>
132
133...because only a <tt><a href="#i_phi">phi</a></tt> node may refer to itself. The LLVM api provides a verification function (<tt>verify</tt>) that may be used to verify that a whole module or a single method is well formed. It is useful to validate whether an optimization pass performed a well formed transformation to the code.<p>
134
135
136Describe the typesetting conventions here.
137
138
139<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
140</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
141<a name="identifiers">Identifiers
142</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
143<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
144
145LLVM uses three different forms of identifiers, for different purposes:<p>
146
147<ol>
148<li>Numeric constants are represented as you would expect: 12, -3 123.421, etc.
149<li>Named values are represented as a string of characters with a '%' prefix. For example, %foo, %DivisionByZero, %a.really.long.identifier. The actual regular expression used is '<tt>%[a-zA-Z$._][a-zA-Z$._0-9]*</tt>'.
150<li>Unnamed values are represented as an unsigned numeric value with a '%' prefix. For example, %12, %2, %44.
151</ol><p>
152
153LLVM requires the values start with a '%' sign for two reasons: Compilers don't need to worry about name clashes with reserved words, and the set of reserved words may be expanded in the future without penalty. Additionally, unnamed identifiers allow a compiler to quickly come up with a temporary variable without having to avoid symbol table conflicts.<p>
154
155Reserved words in LLVM are very similar to reserved words in other languages. There are keywords for different opcodes ('<tt><a href="#i_add">add</a></tt>', '<tt><a href="#i_cast">cast</a></tt>', '<tt><a href="#i_ret">ret</a></tt>', etc...), for primitive type names ('<tt><a href="#t_void">void</a></tt>', '<tt><a href="#t_uint">uint</a></tt>', etc...), and others. These reserved words cannot conflict with variable names, because none of them may start with a '%' character.<p>
156
157Here is an example of LLVM code to multiply the integer variable '<tt>%X</tt>' by 8:<p>
158
159The easy way:
160<pre>
161 %result = <a href="#i_mul">mul</a> int %X, 8
162</pre>
163
164After strength reduction:
165<pre>
166 %result = <a href="#i_shl">shl</a> int %X, ubyte 3
167</pre>
168
169And the hard way:
170<pre>
171 <a href="#i_add">add</a> int %X, %X <i>; yields {int}:%0</i>
172 <a href="#i_add">add</a> int %0, %0 <i>; yields {int}:%1</i>
173 %result = <a href="#i_add">add</a> int %1, %1
174</pre>
175
176This last way of multiplying <tt>%X</tt> by 8 illustrates several important lexical features of LLVM:<p>
177
178<ol>
179<li>Comments are delimited with a '<tt>;</tt>' and go until the end of line.
180<li>Unnamed temporaries are created when the result of a computation is not assigned to a named value.
181<li>Unnamed temporaries are numbered sequentially
182</ol><p>
183
184...and it also show a convention that we follow in this document. When demonstrating instructions, we will follow an instruction with a comment that defines the type and name of value produced. Comments are shown in italic text.<p>
185
186
187
188<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
189</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
190<a name="typesystem">Type System
191</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
192<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
193
194The LLVM type system is important to the overall usefulness of the language and VM runtime. By being strongly typed, a number of optimizations may be performed on the IR directly, without having to do extra analysis to derive types. A strong type system also makes it easier to comprehend generated code and assists with safety concerns.<p>
195
196The assembly language form for the type system was heavily influenced by the type problems in the C language<sup><a href="#rw_stroustrup">1</a></sup>.<p>
197
198
199
200<!-- ======================================================================= -->
201</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
202<a name="t_primitive">Primitive Types
203</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
204
205The primitive types are the fundemental building blocks of the LLVM system. The current set of primitive types are as follows:<p>
206
207<table border=0 align=center><tr><td>
208
209<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 align=center>
210<tr><td><tt>void</tt></td> <td>No value</td></tr>
211<tr><td><tt>ubyte</tt></td> <td>Unsigned 8 bit value</td></tr>
212<tr><td><tt>ushort</tt></td><td>Unsigned 16 bit value</td></tr>
213<tr><td><tt>uint</tt></td> <td>Unsigned 32 bit value</td></tr>
214<tr><td><tt>ulong</tt></td> <td>Unsigned 64 bit value</td></tr>
215<tr><td><tt>float</tt></td> <td>32 bit floating point value</td></tr>
216<tr><td><tt>label</tt></td> <td>Branch destination</td></tr>
217</table>
218
219</td><td>
220
221<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 align=center>
222<tr><td><tt>bool</tt></td> <td>True or False value</td></tr>
223<tr><td><tt>sbyte</tt></td> <td>Signed 8 bit value</td></tr>
224<tr><td><tt>short</tt></td> <td>Signed 16 bit value</td></tr>
225<tr><td><tt>int</tt></td> <td>Signed 32 bit value</td></tr>
226<tr><td><tt>long</tt></td> <td>Signed 64 bit value</td></tr>
227<tr><td><tt>double</tt></td><td>64 bit floating point value</td></tr>
228<tr><td><tt>lock</tt></td> <td>Recursive mutex value</td></tr>
229</table>
230
231</td></tr></table><p>
232
233
234
235<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
236</ul><a name="t_classifications"><h4><hr size=0>Type Classifications</h4><ul>
237
238These different primitive types fall into a few useful classifications:<p>
239
240<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 align=center>
241<tr><td><a name="t_signed">signed</td> <td><tt>sbyte, short, int, long, float, double</tt></td></tr>
242<tr><td><a name="t_unsigned">unsigned</td><td><tt>ubyte, ushort, uint, ulong</tt></td></tr>
243<tr><td><a name="t_integral">integral</td><td><tt>ubyte, sbyte, ushort, short, uint, int, ulong, long</tt></td></tr>
244<tr><td><a name="t_floating">floating point</td><td><tt>float, double</tt></td></tr>
245<tr><td><a name="t_firstclass">first class</td><td><tt>bool, ubyte, sbyte, ushort, short, uint, int, ulong, long, float, double, lock</tt></td></tr>
246</table><p>
247
248
249
250
251
252<!-- ======================================================================= -->
253</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
254<a name="t_derived">Derived Types
255</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
256
257The real power in LLVM comes from the derived types in the system. This is what allows a programmer to represent arrays, methods, pointers, and other useful types. Note that these derived types may be recursive: For example, it is possible to have a two dimensional array.<p>
258
259
260
261<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
262</ul><a name="t_array"><h4><hr size=0>Array Type</h4><ul>
263
264<h5>Overview:</h5>
265
266The array type is a very simple derived type. It arranges elements sequentially in memory. There are two different forms of the array type:<p>
267
268<ol>
269<a name="t_array_fixed"><b><li>Fixed size array type:</b><br>
270 The simplest form of the array type, has a size hard coded in as part of the type. Thus these are three distinct type qualifiers:<p>
271
272 <tt>[40 x int ]</tt>: Array of 40 integer values.<br>
273 <tt>[41 x int ]</tt>: Array of 41 integer values.<br>
274 <tt>[40 x uint]</tt>: Array of 40 unsigned integer values.<p>
275
276Fixed sized arrays are very useful for compiler optimization passes and for representing analysis results. Additionally, multidimensional arrays must have fixed sizes for all dimensions except the outer-most dimension.<p>
277
278<a name="t_array_unsized"><b><li>Dynamically sized array type:</b><br>
279 The dynamically sized arrays are very similar to the fixed size arrays, except that the size of the array is calculated at runtime by the virtual machine. This is useful for representing generic methods that take any size array as an argument, or when representing Java style arrays.
280</ol><p>
281
282Here are some examples of multidimensional arrays:<p>
283<ul>
284<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
285<tr><td><tt>[3 x [4 x int]]</tt></td><td>: 3x4 array integer values.</td></tr>
286<tr><td><tt>[[10 x int]]</tt></td><td>: Nx10 array of integer values.</td></tr>
287<tr><td><tt>[2 x [3 x [4 x uint]]]</tt></td><td>: 2x3x4 array of unsigned integer values.</td></tr>
288</table>
289</ul>
290
291
292
293<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
294</ul><a name="t_method"><h4><hr size=0>Method Type</h4><ul>
295
296<h5>Overview:</h5>
297
298The method type can be thought of as a method signature. It consists of a return type and a list of formal parameter types. Method types are usually used when to build virtual function tables (which are structures of pointers to methods) and for indirect method calls.<p>
299
300<h5>Syntax:</h5>
301<pre>
302 &lt;returntype&gt; (&lt;parameter list&gt;)
303</pre>
304
305Where '<tt>&lt;parameter list&gt;</tt>' is a comma seperated list of type specifiers.<p>
306
307<h5>Examples:</h5>
308<ul>
309<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
310<tr><td><tt>int (int)</tt></td><td>: method taking an <tt>int</tt>, returning an <tt>int</tt></td></tr>
311<tr><td><tt>float (int, int *) *</tt></td><td>: <a href="#t_pointer">Pointer</a> to a method that takes an <tt>int</tt> and a <a href="#t_pointer">pointer</a> to <tt>int</tt>, returning <tt>float</tt>.</td></tr>
312</table>
313</ul>
314
315
316
317<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
318</ul><a name="t_struct"><h4><hr size=0>Structure Type</h4><ul>
319
320<h5>Overview:</h5>
321
322The structure type is used to represent a collection of data members together in memory. Although the runtime is allowed to lay out the data members any way that it would like, they are guaranteed to be "close" to each other.<p>
323
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +0000324Structures are accessed using '<tt><a href="#i_load">load</a></tt> and '<tt><a href="#i_store">store</a></tt>' by getting a pointer to a field with the '<tt><a href="#i_getelementptr">getelementptr</a></tt>' instruction.<p>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +0000325
326<h5>Syntax:</h5>
327<pre>
328 { &lt;type list&gt; }
329</pre>
330
331
332<h5>Examples:</h5>
333<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
334<tr><td><tt>{ int, int, int }</tt></td><td>: a triple of three <tt>int</tt> values</td></tr>
335<tr><td><tt>{ float, int (int *) * }</tt></td><td>: A pair, where the first element is a <tt>float</tt> and the second element is a <a href="#t_pointer">pointer</a> to a <a href="t_method">method</a> that takes an <tt>int</tt>, returning an <tt>int</tt>.</td></tr>
336</table>
337
338
339<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
340</ul><a name="t_pointer"><h4><hr size=0>Pointer Type</h4><ul>
341
342
343<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
344</ul><a name="t_packed"><h4><hr size=0>Packed Type</h4><ul>
345
346Mention/decide that packed types work with saturation or not. Maybe have a packed+saturated type in addition to just a packed type.<p>
347
348Packed types should be 'nonsaturated' because standard data types are not saturated. Maybe have a saturated packed type?<p>
349
350
351<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
352</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
353<a name="highlevel">High Level Structure
354</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
355<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
356
357
358<!-- ======================================================================= -->
359</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
360<a name="modulestructure">Module Structure
361</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
362
363
364talk about the elements of a module: constant pool and method list.<p>
365
366
367<!-- ======================================================================= -->
368</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
369<a name="methodstructure">Method Structure
370</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
371
372
373talk about the constant pool<p>
374talk about how basic blocks delinate labels<p>
375talk about how basic blocks end with terminators<p>
376
377
378<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
379</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
380<a name="instref">Instruction Reference
381</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
382<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
383
384List all of the instructions, list valid types that they accept. Tell what they
385do and stuff also.
386
387<!-- ======================================================================= -->
388</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
389<a name="terminators">Terminator Instructions
390</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
391
392
393
394As was mentioned <a href="#methodstructure">previously</a>, every basic block in
395a program ends with a "Terminator" instruction. Additionally, all terminators yield a '<tt>void</tt>' value: they produce control flow, not values.<p>
396
397There are three different terminator instructions: the '<a href="#i_ret"><tt>ret</tt></a>' instruction, the '<a href="#i_br"><tt>br</tt></a>' instruction, and the '<a href="#i_switch"><tt>switch</tt></a>' instruction.<p>
398
399
400<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
401</ul><a name="i_ret"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>ret</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
402
403<h5>Syntax:</h5>
404<pre>
405 ret &lt;type&gt; &lt;value&gt; <i>; Return a value from a non-void method</i>
406 ret void <i>; Return from void method</i>
407</pre>
408
409<h5>Overview:</h5>
410The '<tt>ret</tt>' instruction is used to return control flow (and optionally a value) from a method, back to the caller.<p>
411
412There are two forms of the '<tt>ret</tt>' instructruction: one that returns a value and then causes control flow, and one that just causes control flow to occur.<p>
413
414<h5>Arguments:</h5>
415The '<tt>ret</tt>' instruction may return any '<a href="#t_firstclass">first class</a>' type. Notice that a method is not <a href="#wellformed">well formed</a> if there exists a '<tt>ret</tt>' instruction inside of the method that returns a value that does not match the return type of the method.<p>
416
417<h5>Semantics:</h5>
418When the '<tt>ret</tt>' instruction is executed, control flow returns back to the calling method's context. If the instruction returns a value, that value shall be propogated into the calling method's data space.<p>
419
420<h5>Example:</h5>
421<pre>
422 ret int 5 <i>; Return an integer value of 5</i>
423 ret void <i>; Return from a void method</i>
424</pre>
425
426
427<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
428</ul><a name="i_br"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>br</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
429
430<h5>Syntax:</h5>
431<pre>
432 br bool &lt;cond&gt;, label &lt;iftrue&gt;, label &lt;iffalse&gt;
433 br label &lt;dest&gt; <i>; Unconditional branch</i>
434</pre>
435
436<h5>Overview:</h5>
437The '<tt>br</tt>' instruction is used to cause control flow to transfer to a different basic block in the current method. There are two forms of this instruction, corresponding to a conditional branch and an unconditional branch. The '<tt>br</tt>' instruction is a (useful) special case '<tt><a href="#i_switch">switch</a></tt>' instruction.<p>
438
439<h5>Arguments:</h5>
440
441The conditional branch form of the '<tt>br</tt>' instruction shall take a single '<tt>bool</tt>' value and two '<tt>label</tt>' values. The unconditional form of the '<tt>br</tt>' instruction takes a single '<tt>label</tt>' value as a target.<p>
442
443<h5>Semantics:</h5>
444
445Upon execution of a conditional '<tt>br</tt>' instruction, the '<tt>bool</tt>' argument is evaluated. If the value is <tt>true</tt>, control flows to the '<tt>iftrue</tt>' '<tt>label</tt>' argument. If "cond" is <tt>false</tt>, control flows to the '<tt>iffalse</tt>' '<tt>label</tt>' argument.<p>
446
447<h5>Example:</h5>
448<pre>
449Test:
450 %cond = <a href="#i_setcc">seteq</a> int %a, %b
451 br bool %cond, label %IfEqual, label %IfUnequal
452IfEqual:
453 <a href="#i_ret">ret</a> bool true
454IfUnequal:
455 <a href="#i_ret">ret</a> bool false
456</pre>
457
458
459<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
460</ul><a name="i_switch"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>switch</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
461
462<h5>Syntax:</h5>
463<pre>
464 <i>; Definitions for lookup indirect branch</i>
465 %switchtype = type [&lt;anysize&gt; x { uint, label }]
466
467 <i>; Lookup indirect branch</i>
468 switch uint &lt;value&gt;, label &lt;defaultdest&gt;, %switchtype &lt;switchtable&gt;
469
470 <i>; Indexed indirect branch</i>
471 switch uint &lt;idxvalue&gt;, label &lt;defaultdest&gt;, [&lt;anysize&gt; x label] &lt;desttable&gt;
472</pre>
473
474<h5>Overview:</h5>
475The '<tt>switch</tt>' instruction is used to transfer control flow to one of several different places. It is a simple generalization of the '<tt>br</tt>' instruction, and supports a strict superset of its functionality.<p>
476
477The '<tt>switch</tt>' statement supports two different styles of indirect branching: lookup branching and indexed branching. Lookup branching is generally useful if the values to switch on are spread far appart, where index branching is useful if the values to switch on are generally dense.<p>
478
479The two different forms of the '<tt>switch</tt>' statement are simple hints to the underlying virtual machine implementation. For example, a virtual machine may choose to implement a small indirect branch table as a series of predicated comparisons: if it is faster for the target architecture.<p>
480
481<h5>Arguments:</h5>
482The lookup form of the '<tt>switch</tt>' instruction uses three parameters: a '<tt>uint</tt>' comparison value '<tt>value</tt>', a default '<tt>label</tt>' destination, and a sized array of pairs of comparison value constants and '<tt>label</tt>'s. The sized array must be a constant value.<p>
483
484The indexed form of the '<tt>switch</tt>' instruction uses three parameters: an '<tt>uint</tt>' index value, a default '<tt>label</tt>' and a sized array of '<tt>label</tt>'s. The '<tt>dests</tt>' array must be a constant array.
485
486<h5>Semantics:</h5>
487
488The lookup style switch statement specifies a table of values and destinations. When the '<tt>switch</tt>' instruction is executed, this table is searched for the given value. If the value is found, the corresponding destination is branched to. <p>
489The index branch form simply looks up a label element directly in a table and branches to it.<p>
490
491In either case, the compiler knows the static size of the array, because it is provided as part of the constant values type.<p>
492
493<h5>Example:</h5>
494<pre>
495 <i>; Emulate a conditional br instruction</i>
496 %Val = <a href="#i_cast">cast</a> bool %value to uint
497 switch uint %Val, label %truedest, [1 x label] [label %falsedest ]
498
499 <i>; Emulate an unconditional br instruction</i>
500 switch uint 0, label %dest, [ 0 x label] [ ]
501
502 <i>; Implement a jump table using the constant pool:</i>
503 void "testmeth"(int %arg0)
504 %switchdests = [3 x label] [ label %onzero, label %onone, label %ontwo ]
505 {
506 ...
507 switch uint %val, label %otherwise, [3 x label] %switchdests...
508 ...
509 }
510
511 <i>; Implement the equivilent jump table directly:</i>
512 switch uint %val, label %otherwise, [3 x label] [ label %onzero,
513 label %onone,
514 label %ontwo ]
515
516</pre>
517
518
519
520<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
521</ul><a name="i_callwith"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>call .. with</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
522
523<h5>Syntax:</h5>
524<pre>
525 &lt;result&gt; = call &lt;method ty&gt; %&lt;method name&gt;(&lt;method args&gt;) with label &lt;break label&gt;
526</pre>
527
528<h5>Overview:</h5>
529The '<tt>call .. with</tt>' instruction is used to cause control flow to transfer to a specified method, with the possibility of control flow transfer to the '<tt>break label</tt>' label, in addition to the possibility of fallthrough to the next basic block. The '<tt><a href="#i_call">call</a></tt>' instruction is closely related, but does guarantees that control flow either never returns from the invoked method, or that it returns to the instruction succeeding the '<tt><a href="#i_call">call</a></tt>' instruction.<p>
530
531TODO: icall .. with needs to be defined as well for an indirect call.<p>
532
533<h5>Arguments:</h5>
534
535This instruction requires several arguments:<p>
536<ol>
537<li>'<tt>method ty</tt>': shall be the signature of the named method being invoked. This must be a <a href="#t_method">method type</a>.
538<li>'<tt>method name</tt>': method name to be invoked.
539<li>'<tt>method args</tt>': argument list whose types match the method signature argument types.
540<li>'<tt>break label</tt>': a label that specifies the break label associated with this call.
541</ol>
542
543<h5>Semantics:</h5>
544
545This instruction is designed to operate as a standard '<tt><a href="#i_call">call</a></tt>' instruction in most regards. The primary difference is that it assiciates a label with the method invocation that may be accessed via the runtime library provided by the execution environment. This instruction is used in languages with destructors to ensure that proper cleanup is performed in the case of either a <tt>longjmp</tt> or a thrown exception. Additionally, this is important for implementation of '<tt>catch</tt>' clauses in high-level languages that support them.<p>
546
547For a more comprehensive explanation of this instruction look in the llvm/docs/2001-05-18-ExceptionHandling.txt document.
548
549<h5>Example:</h5>
550<pre>
551 %retval = call int (int) %Test(int 15) with label %TestCleanup <i>; {int}:retval set</i>
552</pre>
553
554
555
556<!-- ======================================================================= -->
557</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
558<a name="unaryops">Unary Operations
559</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
560
561Unary operators are used to do a simple operation to a single value.<p>
562
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +0000563There is only one unary operators: the '<a href="#i_not"><tt>not</tt></a>' instruction.<p>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +0000564
565
566<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
567</ul><a name="i_not"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>not</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
568
569<h5>Syntax:</h5>
570<pre>
571 &lt;result&gt; = not &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
572</pre>
573
574<h5>Overview:</h5>
575The '<tt>not</tt>' instruction returns the <a href="#logical_integrals">logical</a> inverse of its operand.<p>
576
577<h5>Arguments:</h5>
578The single argument to '<tt>not</tt>' must be of of <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> type.<p>
579
580
581<h5>Semantics:</h5>
582The '<tt>not</tt>' instruction returns the <a href="#logical_integrals">logical</a> inverse of an <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> type.<p>
583
584Note that the '<tt>not</tt>' instruction is is not defined over to '<tt>bool</tt>' type. To invert a boolean value, the recommended method is to use:<p>
585
586<pre>
587 &lt;result&gt; = xor bool true, &lt;var&gt; <i>; yields {bool}:result</i>
588</pre>
589
590<h5>Example:</h5>
591<pre>
592 %x = not int 1 <i>; {int}:x is now equal to 0</i>
593 %x = not bool true <i>; {bool}:x is now equal to false</i>
594</pre>
595
596
597
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +0000598<!-- ======================================================================= -->
599</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
600<a name="binaryops">Binary Operations
601</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
602
603Binary operators are used to do most of the computation in a program. They require two operands, execute an operation on them, and produce a single value. The result value of a binary operator is not neccesarily the same type as its operands.<p>
604
605There are several different binary operators:<p>
606
607
608<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
609</ul><a name="i_add"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>add</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
610
611<h5>Syntax:</h5>
612<pre>
613 &lt;result&gt; = add &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
614</pre>
615
616<h5>Overview:</h5>
617The '<tt>add</tt>' instruction returns the sum of its two operands.<p>
618
619<h5>Arguments:</h5>
620The two arguments to the '<tt>add</tt>' instruction must be either <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> or <a href="#t_floating">floating point</a> values. Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
621
622<h5>Semantics:</h5>
623...<p>
624
625<h5>Example:</h5>
626<pre>
627 &lt;result&gt; = add int 4, %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 + %var</i>
628</pre>
629
630
631<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
632</ul><a name="i_sub"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>sub</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
633
634<h5>Syntax:</h5>
635<pre>
636 &lt;result&gt; = sub &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
637</pre>
638
639<h5>Overview:</h5>
640The '<tt>sub</tt>' instruction returns the difference of its two operands.<p>
641
642Note that the '<tt>sub</tt>' instruction is the cannonical way the '<tt>neg</tt>' instruction is represented as well.<p>
643
644<h5>Arguments:</h5>
645The two arguments to the '<tt>sub</tt>' instruction must be either <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> or <a href="#t_floating">floating point</a> values. Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
646
647<h5>Semantics:</h5>
648...<p>
649
650<h5>Example:</h5>
651<pre>
652 &lt;result&gt; = sub int 4, %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 - %var</i>
653 &lt;result&gt; = sub int 0, %val <i>; yields {int}:result = -%var</i>
654</pre>
655
656<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
657</ul><a name="i_mul"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>mul</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
658
659<h5>Syntax:</h5>
660<pre>
661 &lt;result&gt; = mul &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
662</pre>
663
664<h5>Overview:</h5>
665The '<tt>mul</tt>' instruction returns the product of its two operands.<p>
666
667<h5>Arguments:</h5>
668The two arguments to the '<tt>mul</tt>' instruction must be either <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> or <a href="#t_floating">floating point</a> values. Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
669
670<h5>Semantics:</h5>
671...<p>
672There is no signed vs unsigned multiplication. The appropriate action is taken based on the type of the operand. <p>
673
674
675<h5>Example:</h5>
676<pre>
677 &lt;result&gt; = mul int 4, %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 * %var</i>
678</pre>
679
680
681<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
682</ul><a name="i_div"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>div</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
683
684<h5>Syntax:</h5>
685<pre>
686 &lt;result&gt; = div &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
687</pre>
688
689<h5>Overview:</h5>
690The '<tt>div</tt>' instruction returns the quotient of its two operands.<p>
691
692<h5>Arguments:</h5>
693The two arguments to the '<tt>div</tt>' instruction must be either <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> or <a href="#t_floating">floating point</a> values. Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
694
695<h5>Semantics:</h5>
696...<p>
697
698<h5>Example:</h5>
699<pre>
700 &lt;result&gt; = div int 4, %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 / %var</i>
701</pre>
702
703
704<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
705</ul><a name="i_rem"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>rem</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
706
707<h5>Syntax:</h5>
708<pre>
709 &lt;result&gt; = rem &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
710</pre>
711
712<h5>Overview:</h5>
713The '<tt>rem</tt>' instruction returns the remainder from the division of its two operands.<p>
714
715<h5>Arguments:</h5>
716The two arguments to the '<tt>rem</tt>' instruction must be either <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> or <a href="#t_floating">floating point</a> values. Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
717
718<h5>Semantics:</h5>
719TODO: remainder or modulus?<p>
720...<p>
721
722<h5>Example:</h5>
723<pre>
724 &lt;result&gt; = rem int 4, %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 % %var</i>
725</pre>
726
727
728<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
729</ul><a name="i_setcc"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>set<i>cc</i></tt>' Instructions</h4><ul>
730
731<h5>Syntax:</h5>
732<pre>
733 &lt;result&gt; = seteq &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {bool}:result</i>
734 &lt;result&gt; = setne &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {bool}:result</i>
735 &lt;result&gt; = setlt &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {bool}:result</i>
736 &lt;result&gt; = setgt &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {bool}:result</i>
737 &lt;result&gt; = setle &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {bool}:result</i>
738 &lt;result&gt; = setge &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {bool}:result</i>
739</pre>
740
741<h5>Overview:</h5>
742The '<tt>set<i>cc</i></tt>' family of instructions returns a boolean value based on a comparison of their two operands.<p>
743
744<h5>Arguments:</h5>
745The two arguments to the '<tt>set<i>cc</i></tt>' instructions must be of <a href="#t_firstclass">first class</a> or <a href="#t_derived">derived</a> type (it is not possible to compare '<tt>label</tt>'s or '<tt>void</tt>' values). Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
746
747The '<tt>setlt</tt>', '<tt>setgt</tt>', '<tt>setle</tt>', and '<tt>setge</tt>' instructions do not operate on '<tt>bool</tt>' typed arguments.<p>
748
749<h5>Semantics:</h5>
750The '<tt>seteq</tt>' instruction yields a <tt>true</tt> '<tt>bool</tt>' value if both operands are equal.<br>
751The '<tt>setne</tt>' instruction yields a <tt>true</tt> '<tt>bool</tt>' value if both operands are unequal.<br>
752The '<tt>setlt</tt>' instruction yields a <tt>true</tt> '<tt>bool</tt>' value if the first operand is less than the second operand.<br>
753The '<tt>setgt</tt>' instruction yields a <tt>true</tt> '<tt>bool</tt>' value if the first operand is greater than the second operand.<br>
754The '<tt>setle</tt>' instruction yields a <tt>true</tt> '<tt>bool</tt>' value if the first operand is less than or equal to the second operand.<br>
755The '<tt>setge</tt>' instruction yields a <tt>true</tt> '<tt>bool</tt>' value if the first operand is greater than or equal to the second operand.<p>
756
757<h5>Example:</h5>
758<pre>
759 &lt;result&gt; = seteq int 4, 5 <i>; yields {bool}:result = false</i>
760 &lt;result&gt; = setne float 4, 5 <i>; yields {bool}:result = true</i>
761 &lt;result&gt; = setlt uint 4, 5 <i>; yields {bool}:result = true</i>
762 &lt;result&gt; = setgt sbyte 4, 5 <i>; yields {bool}:result = false</i>
763 &lt;result&gt; = setle sbyte 4, 5 <i>; yields {bool}:result = true</i>
764 &lt;result&gt; = setge sbyte 4, 5 <i>; yields {bool}:result = false</i>
765</pre>
766
767
768
769<!-- ======================================================================= -->
770</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
771<a name="bitwiseops">Bitwise Binary Operations
772</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
773
774Bitwise binary operators are used to do various forms of bit-twiddling in a program. They are generally very efficient instructions, and can commonly be strength reduced from other instructions. They require two operands, execute an operation on them, and produce a single value. The resulting value of the bitwise binary operators is always the same type as its first operand.<p>
775
776<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
777</ul><a name="i_and"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>and</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
778
779<h5>Syntax:</h5>
780<pre>
781 &lt;result&gt; = and &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
782</pre>
783
784<h5>Overview:</h5>
785The '<tt>and</tt>' instruction returns the bitwise logical and of its two operands.<p>
786
787<h5>Arguments:</h5>
788The two arguments to the '<tt>and</tt>' instruction must be either <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> or <a href="#t_bool"><tt>bool</tt></a> values. Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
789
790
791<h5>Semantics:</h5>
792...<p>
793
794
795<h5>Example:</h5>
796<pre>
797 &lt;result&gt; = and int 4, %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 & %var</i>
798 &lt;result&gt; = and int 15, 40 <i>; yields {int}:result = 8</i>
799 &lt;result&gt; = and int 4, 8 <i>; yields {int}:result = 0</i>
800</pre>
801
802
803
804<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
805</ul><a name="i_or"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>or</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
806
807<h5>Syntax:</h5>
808<pre>
809 &lt;result&gt; = or &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
810</pre>
811
812<h5>Overview:</h5>
813The '<tt>or</tt>' instruction returns the bitwise logical inclusive or of its two operands.<p>
814
815<h5>Arguments:</h5>
816The two arguments to the '<tt>or</tt>' instruction must be either <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> or <a href="#t_bool"><tt>bool</tt></a> values. Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
817
818
819<h5>Semantics:</h5>
820...<p>
821
822
823<h5>Example:</h5>
824<pre>
825 &lt;result&gt; = or int 4, %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 | %var</i>
826 &lt;result&gt; = or int 15, 40 <i>; yields {int}:result = 47</i>
827 &lt;result&gt; = or int 4, 8 <i>; yields {int}:result = 12</i>
828</pre>
829
830
831<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
832</ul><a name="i_xor"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>xor</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
833
834<h5>Syntax:</h5>
835<pre>
836 &lt;result&gt; = xor &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
837</pre>
838
839<h5>Overview:</h5>
840The '<tt>xor</tt>' instruction returns the bitwise logical exclusive or of its two operands.<p>
841
842<h5>Arguments:</h5>
843The two arguments to the '<tt>xor</tt>' instruction must be either <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> or <a href="#t_bool"><tt>bool</tt></a> values. Both arguments must have identical types.<p>
844
845
846<h5>Semantics:</h5>
847...<p>
848
849
850<h5>Example:</h5>
851<pre>
852 &lt;result&gt; = xor int 4, %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 ^ %var</i>
853 &lt;result&gt; = xor int 15, 40 <i>; yields {int}:result = 39</i>
854 &lt;result&gt; = xor int 4, 8 <i>; yields {int}:result = 12</i>
855</pre>
856
857
858<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
859</ul><a name="i_shl"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>shl</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
860
861<h5>Syntax:</h5>
862<pre>
863 &lt;result&gt; = shl &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, ubyte &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
864</pre>
865
866<h5>Overview:</h5>
867The '<tt>shl</tt>' instruction returns the first operand shifted to the left a specified number of bits.
868
869<h5>Arguments:</h5>
870The first argument to the '<tt>shl</tt>' instruction must be an <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> type. The second argument must be an '<tt>ubyte</tt>' type.<p>
871
872<h5>Semantics:</h5>
873... 0 bits are shifted into the emptied bit positions...<p>
874
875
876<h5>Example:</h5>
877<pre>
878 &lt;result&gt; = shl int 4, ubyte %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 << %var</i>
879 &lt;result&gt; = shl int 4, ubyte 2 <i>; yields {int}:result = 16</i>
880 &lt;result&gt; = shl int 1, ubyte 10 <i>; yields {int}:result = 1024</i>
881</pre>
882
883
884<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
885</ul><a name="i_shr"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>shr</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
886
887
888<h5>Syntax:</h5>
889<pre>
890 &lt;result&gt; = shr &lt;ty&gt; &lt;var1&gt;, ubyte &lt;var2&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
891</pre>
892
893<h5>Overview:</h5>
894The '<tt>shr</tt>' instruction returns the first operand shifted to the right a specified number of bits.
895
896<h5>Arguments:</h5>
897The first argument to the '<tt>shr</tt>' instruction must be an <a href="#t_integral">integral</a> type. The second argument must be an '<tt>ubyte</tt>' type.<p>
898
899<h5>Semantics:</h5>
900... if the first argument is a <a href="#t_signed">signed</a> type, the most significant bit is duplicated in the newly free'd bit positions. If the first argument is unsigned, zeros shall fill the empty positions...<p>
901
902<h5>Example:</h5>
903<pre>
904 &lt;result&gt; = shr int 4, ubyte %var <i>; yields {int}:result = 4 >> %var</i>
905 &lt;result&gt; = shr int 4, ubyte 1 <i>; yields {int}:result = 2</i>
906 &lt;result&gt; = shr int 4, ubyte 2 <i>; yields {int}:result = 1</i>
907 &lt;result&gt; = shr int 4, ubyte 3 <i>; yields {int}:result = 0</i>
908</pre>
909
910
911
912
913
914<!-- ======================================================================= -->
915</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
916<a name="memoryops">Memory Access Operations
917</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
918
919Accessing memory in SSA form is, well, sticky at best. This section describes how to read and write memory in LLVM.<p>
920
921
922<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
923</ul><a name="i_malloc"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>malloc</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
924
925<h5>Syntax:</h5>
926<pre>
927 &lt;result&gt; = malloc &lt;type&gt; <i>; yields { type *}:result</i>
928 &lt;result&gt; = malloc [&lt;type&gt;], uint &lt;NumElements&gt; <i>; yields {[type] *}:result</i>
929</pre>
930
931<h5>Overview:</h5>
932The '<tt>malloc</tt>' instruction allocates memory from the system heap and returns a pointer to it.<p>
933
934<h5>Arguments:</h5>
935
936There are two forms of the '<tt>malloc</tt>' instruction, one for allocating a variable of a fixed type, and one for allocating an array. The array form is used to allocate an array, where the upper bound is not known until run time. If the upper bound is known at compile time, it is recommended that the first form be used with a <a href="#t_array_fixed">sized array type</a>.<p>
937
938'<tt>type</tt>' may be any type except for a <a href="#t_array_unsized">unsized array type</a>.<p>
939
940<h5>Semantics:</h5>
941Memory is allocated, a pointer is returned.<p>
942
943<h5>Example:</h5>
944<pre>
945 %array = malloc [4 x ubyte ] <i>; yields {[%4 x ubyte]*}:array</i>
946
947 %size = <a href="#i_add">add</a> uint 2, 2 <i>; yields {uint}:size = uint 4</i>
948 %array1 = malloc [ubyte], uint 4 <i>; yields {[ubyte]*}:array1</i>
949 %array2 = malloc [ubyte], uint %size <i>; yields {[ubyte]*}:array2</i>
950</pre>
951
952
953<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
954</ul><a name="i_free"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>free</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
955
956<h5>Syntax:</h5>
957<pre>
958 free &lt;type&gt; &lt;value&gt; <i>; yields {void}</i>
959</pre>
960
961
962<h5>Overview:</h5>
963The '<tt>free</tt>' instruction returns memory back to the unused memory heap, to be reallocated in the future.<p>
964
965
966<h5>Arguments:</h5>
967
968'<tt>value</tt>' shall be a pointer value that points to a value that was allocated with the '<tt><a href="#i_malloc">malloc</a></tt>' instruction.<p>
969
970
971<h5>Semantics:</h5>
972Memory is available for use after this point. The contents of the '<tt>value</tt>' pointer are undefined after this instruction.<p>
973
974
975<h5>Example:</h5>
976<pre>
977 %array = <a href="#i_malloc">malloc</a> [4 x ubyte] <i>; yields {[4 x ubyte]*}:array</i>
978 free [4 x ubyte]* %array
979</pre>
980
981
982<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
983</ul><a name="i_alloca"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>alloca</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
984
985<h5>Syntax:</h5>
986<pre>
987 &lt;result&gt; = alloca &lt;type&gt; <i>; yields {type*}:result</i>
988 &lt;result&gt; = alloca [&lt;type&gt;], uint &lt;NumElements&gt; <i>; yields {[type] *}:result</i>
989</pre>
990
991<h5>Overview:</h5>
992
993The '<tt>alloca</tt>' instruction allocates memory on the current stack frame of the procedure that is live as long as the method does not return.<p>
994
995<h5>Arguments:</h5>
996There are two forms of the '<tt>alloca</tt>' instruction, one for allocating a variable of a fixed type, and one for allocating an array. The array form is used to allocate an array, where the upper bound is not known until run time. If the upper bound is known at compile time, it is recommended that the first form be used with a <a href="#t_array_fixed">sized array type</a>.<p>
997
998'<tt>type</tt>' may be any type except for a <a href="#t_array_unsized">unsized array type</a>.<p>
999
1000Note that a virtual machine may generate more efficient native code for a method if all of the fixed size '<tt>alloca</tt>' instructions live in the first basic block of that method.
1001
1002
1003<h5>Semantics:</h5>
1004Memory is allocated, a pointer is returned. '<tt>alloca</tt>'d memory is automatically released when the method returns. The '<tt>alloca</tt>' utility is how variable spills shall be implemented.<p>
1005
1006<h5>Example:</h5>
1007<pre>
1008 %ptr = alloca int <i>; yields {int*}:ptr</i>
1009 %ptr = alloca [int], uint 4 <i>; yields {[int]*}:ptr</i>
1010</pre>
1011
1012
1013<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1014</ul><a name="i_load"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>load</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
1015
1016<h5>Syntax:</h5>
1017<pre>
1018 &lt;result&gt; = load &lt;ty&gt;* &lt;pointer&gt; <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001019 &lt;result&gt; = load &lt;ty&gt;* &lt;arrayptr&gt;{, uint &lt;idx&gt;}+ <i>; yields {ty}:result</i>
1020 &lt;result&gt; = load &lt;ty&gt;* &lt;structptr&gt;{, ubyte &lt;idx&gt;}+ <i>; yields field type</i>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001021</pre>
1022
1023<h5>Overview:</h5>
1024The '<tt>load</tt>' instruction is used to read from memory.<p>
1025
1026<h5>Arguments:</h5>
1027
Chris Lattnerdb092622001-06-11 15:03:43 +00001028There are three forms of the '<tt>load</tt>' instruction: one for reading from a general pointer, one for reading from a pointer to an array, and one for reading from a pointer to a structure.<p>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001029
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001030In the first form, '<tt>&lt;ty&gt;</tt>' must be a pointer to a simple type (a primitive type or another pointer).<p>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001031
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001032In the second form, '<tt>&lt;ty&gt;</tt>' must be a pointer to an array, and a list of one or more indices is provided as indexes into the (possibly multidimensional) array. No bounds checking is performed on array reads.<p>
1033
1034In the third form, the pointer must point to a (possibly nested) structure. There shall be one ubyte argument for each level of dereferencing involved.<p>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001035
1036<h5>Semantics:</h5>
1037...
1038
1039<h5>Examples:</h5>
1040<pre>
1041 %ptr = <a href="#i_alloca">alloca</a> int <i>; yields {int*}:ptr</i>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001042 <a href="#i_store">store</a> int 3, int* %ptr <i>; yields {void}</i>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001043 %val = load int* %ptr <i>; yields {int}:val = int 3</i>
1044
1045 %array = <a href="#i_malloc">malloc</a> [4 x ubyte] <i>; yields {[4 x ubyte]*}:array</i>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001046 <a href="#i_store">store</a> ubyte 124, [4 x ubyte]* %array, uint 4
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001047 %val = load [4 x ubyte]* %array, uint 4 <i>; yields {ubyte}:val = ubyte 124</i>
Chris Lattnerdb092622001-06-11 15:03:43 +00001048 %val = load {{int, float}}* %stptr, 0, 1 <i>; yields {float}:val</i>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001049</pre>
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1055</ul><a name="i_store"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>store</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
1056
1057<h5>Syntax:</h5>
1058<pre>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001059 store &lt;ty&gt; &lt;value&gt;, &lt;ty&gt;* &lt;pointer&gt; <i>; yields {void}</i>
1060 store &lt;ty&gt; &lt;value&gt;, &lt;ty&gt;* &lt;arrayptr&gt;{, uint &lt;idx&gt;}+ <i>; yields {void}</i>
1061 store &lt;ty&gt; &lt;value&gt;, &lt;ty&gt;* &lt;structptr&gt;{, ubyte &lt;idx&gt;}+ <i>; yields {void}e</i>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001062</pre>
1063
1064<h5>Overview:</h5>
1065The '<tt>store</tt>' instruction is used to write to memory.<p>
1066
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001067<h5>Arguments:</h5>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001068There are three forms of the '<tt>store</tt>' instruction: one for writing through a general pointer, one for writing through a pointer to a (possibly multidimensional) array, and one for writing to an element of a (potentially nested) structure.<p>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001069
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001070The semantics of this instruction closely match that of the <a href="#i_load">load</a> instruction, except that memory is written to, not read from.
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001071
1072<h5>Semantics:</h5>
1073...
1074
1075<h5>Example:</h5>
1076<pre>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001077 %ptr = <a href="#i_alloca">alloca</a> int <i>; yields {int*}:ptr</i>
1078 <a href="#i_store">store</a> int 3, int* %ptr <i>; yields {void}</i>
1079 %val = load int* %ptr <i>; yields {int}:val = int 3</i>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001080
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001081 %array = <a href="#i_malloc">malloc</a> [4 x ubyte] <i>; yields {[4 x ubyte]*}:array</i>
1082 <a href="#i_store">store</a> ubyte 124, [4 x ubyte]* %array, uint 4
1083 %val = load [4 x ubyte]* %array, uint 4 <i>; yields {ubyte}:val = ubyte 124</i>
1084 %val = load {{int, float}}* %stptr, 0, 1 <i>; yields {float}:val</i>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001085</pre>
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001091</ul><a name="i_getelementptr"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>getelementptr</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001092
1093<h5>Syntax:</h5>
1094<pre>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001095 &lt;result&gt; = getelementptr &lt;ty&gt;* &lt;arrayptr&gt;{, uint &lt;idx&gt;}+ <i>; yields {ty*}:result</i>
1096 &lt;result&gt; = getelementptr &lt;ty&gt;* &lt;structptr&gt;{, ubyte &lt;idx&gt;}+ <i>; yields field type*</i>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001097</pre>
1098
1099<h5>Overview:</h5>
1100
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001101'<tt>getelementptr</tt>' performs all of the same work that a '<tt><a href="#i_load">load</a>' instruction does, except for the actual memory fetch. Instead, '<tt>getelementpr</tt>' simply performs the addressing arithmetic to get to the element in question, and returns it. This is useful for indexing into a bimodal structure.
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001102
1103<h5>Arguments:</h5>
1104
1105
1106<h5>Semantics:</h5>
1107
1108
1109<h5>Example:</h5>
1110<pre>
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001111 %aptr = getelementptr {int, [12 x ubyte]}* %sptr, 1 <i>; yields {[12 x ubyte]*}:aptr</i>
1112 %ub = load [12x ubyte]* %aptr, 4 <i>;yields {ubyte}:ub</i>
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001113</pre>
1114
1115
1116
1117<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1118</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
1119<a name="otherops">Other Operations
1120</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
1121
1122The instructions in this catagory are the "miscellaneous" functions, that defy better classification.<p>
1123
1124
1125<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001126</ul><a name="i_cast"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>cast .. to</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
1127
1128<h1>TODO</h1>
1129
1130<a name="logical_integrals">
1131 Talk about what is considered true or false for integrals.
1132
1133
1134
1135<h5>Syntax:</h5>
1136<pre>
1137</pre>
1138
1139<h5>Overview:</h5>
1140
1141
1142<h5>Arguments:</h5>
1143
1144
1145<h5>Semantics:</h5>
1146
1147
1148<h5>Example:</h5>
1149<pre>
1150</pre>
1151
1152
1153
1154<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001155</ul><a name="i_call"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>call</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
1156
1157<h5>Syntax:</h5>
1158<pre>
1159
1160</pre>
1161
1162<h5>Overview:</h5>
1163
1164
1165<h5>Arguments:</h5>
1166
1167
1168<h5>Semantics:</h5>
1169
1170
1171<h5>Example:</h5>
1172<pre>
1173 %retval = call int %test(int %argc)
1174</pre>
1175
1176
1177<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ --></ul><a name="i_icall"><h3><hr size=0>'<tt>icall</tt>' Instruction</h3><ul>
1178
1179Indirect calls are desperately needed to implement virtual function tables (C++, java) and function pointers (C, C++, ...).<p>
1180
1181A new instruction <tt>icall</tt> or similar should be introduced to represent an indirect call.<p>
1182
1183Example:
1184<pre>
1185 %retval = icall int %funcptr(int %arg1) <i>; yields {int}:%retval</i>
1186</pre>
1187
1188
1189
1190<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1191</ul><a name="i_phi"><h4><hr size=0>'<tt>phi</tt>' Instruction</h4><ul>
1192
1193<h5>Syntax:</h5>
1194<pre>
1195</pre>
1196
1197<h5>Overview:</h5>
1198
1199
1200<h5>Arguments:</h5>
1201
1202
1203<h5>Semantics:</h5>
1204
1205
1206<h5>Example:</h5>
1207<pre>
1208</pre>
1209
1210
1211<!-- ======================================================================= -->
1212</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#441188" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td width="100%">&nbsp; <font color="#EEEEFF" face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
1213<a name="builtinfunc">Builtin Functions
1214</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
1215
1216<b>Notice:</b> Preliminary idea!<p>
1217
1218Builtin functions are very similar to normal functions, except they are defined by the implementation. Invocations of these functions are very similar to method invocations, except that the syntax is a little less verbose.<p>
1219
1220Builtin functions are useful to implement semi-high level ideas like a '<tt>min</tt>' or '<tt>max</tt>' operation that can have important properties when doing program analysis. For example:
1221
1222<ul>
1223<li>Some optimizations can make use of identities defined over the functions,
1224 for example a parrallelizing compiler could make use of '<tt>min</tt>'
1225 identities to parrellelize a loop.
1226<li>Builtin functions would have polymorphic types, where normal method calls
1227 may only have a single type.
1228<li>Builtin functions would be known to not have side effects, simplifying
1229 analysis over straight method calls.
1230<li>The syntax of the builtin are cleaner than the syntax of the
1231 '<a href="#i_call"><tt>call</tt></a>' instruction (very minor point).
1232</ul>
1233
1234Because these invocations are explicit in the representation, the runtime can choose to implement these builtin functions any way that they want, including:
1235
1236<ul>
1237<li>Inlining the code directly into the invocation
1238<li>Implementing the functions in some sort of Runtime class, convert invocation
1239 to a standard method call.
1240<li>Implementing the functions in some sort of Runtime class, and perform
1241 standard inlining optimizations on it.
1242</ul>
1243
1244Note that these builtins do not use quoted identifiers: the name of the builtin effectively becomes an identifier in the language.<p>
1245
1246Example:
1247<pre>
1248 ; Example of a normal method call
1249 %maximum = call int %maximum(int %arg1, int %arg2) <i>; yields {int}:%maximum</i>
1250
1251 ; Examples of potential builtin functions
1252 %max = max(int %arg1, int %arg2) <i>; yields {int}:%max</i>
1253 %min = min(int %arg1, int %arg2) <i>; yields {int}:%min</i>
1254 %sin = sin(double %arg) <i>; yields {double}:%sin</i>
1255 %cos = cos(double %arg) <i>; yields {double}:%cos</i>
1256
1257 ; Show that builtin's are polymorphic, like instructions
1258 %max = max(float %arg1, float %arg2) <i>; yields {float}:%max</i>
1259 %cos = cos(float %arg) <i>; yields {float}:%cos</i>
1260</pre>
1261
1262The '<tt>maximum</tt>' vs '<tt>max</tt>' example illustrates the difference in calling semantics between a '<a href="#i_call"><tt>call</tt></a>' instruction and a builtin function invocation. Notice that the '<tt>maximum</tt>' example assumes that the method is defined local to the caller.<p>
1263
1264
1265
1266
1267<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1268</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
1269<a name="todo">TODO List
1270</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
1271<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1272
1273This list of random topics includes things that will <b>need</b> to be addressed before the llvm may be used to implement a java like langauge. Right now, it is pretty much useless for any language, given to unavailable of structure types<p>
1274
1275<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1276</ul><a name="synchronization"><h3><hr size=0>Synchronization Instructions</h3><ul>
1277
1278We will need some type of synchronization instructions to be able to implement stuff in Java well. The way I currently envision doing this is to introduce a '<tt>lock</tt>' type, and then add two (builtin or instructions) operations to lock and unlock the lock.<p>
1279
1280
1281<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1282</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
1283<a name="extensions">Possible Extensions
1284</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
1285<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1286
1287These extensions are distinct from the TODO list, as they are mostly "interesting" ideas that could be implemented in the future by someone so motivated. They are not directly required to get <a href="#rw_java">Java</a> like languages working.<p>
1288
1289<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1290</ul><a name="i_tailcall"><h3><hr size=0>'<tt>tailcall</tt>' Instruction</h3><ul>
1291
1292This could be useful. Who knows. '.net' does it, but is the optimization really worth the extra hassle? Using strong typing would make this trivial to implement and a runtime could always callback to using downconverting this to a normal '<a href="#i_call"><tt>call</tt></a>' instruction.<p>
1293
1294
1295<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1296</ul><a name="globalvars"><h3><hr size=0>Global Variables</h3><ul>
1297
1298In order to represent programs written in languages like C, we need to be able to support variables at the module (global) scope. Perhaps they should be written outside of the module definition even. Maybe global functions should be handled like this as well.<p>
1299
1300
1301<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1302</ul><a name="explicitparrellelism"><h3><hr size=0>Explicit Parrellelism</h3><ul>
1303
1304With the rise of massively parrellel architectures (like <a href="#rw_ia64">the IA64 architecture</a>, multithreaded CPU cores, and SIMD data sets) it is becoming increasingly more important to extract all of the ILP from a code stream possible. It would be interesting to research encoding methods that can explicitly represent this. One straightforward way to do this would be to introduce a "stop" instruction that is equilivent to the IA64 stop bit.<p>
1305
1306
1307
1308<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1309</ul><table width="100%" bgcolor="#330077" border=0 cellpadding=4 cellspacing=0><tr><td align=center><font color="#EEEEFF" size=+2 face="Georgia,Palatino"><b>
1310<a name="related">Related Work
1311</b></font></td></tr></table><ul>
1312<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1313
1314
1315Codesigned virtual machines.<p>
1316
1317<dl>
1318<a name="rw_safetsa">
1319<dt>SafeTSA
1320<DD>Description here<p>
1321
1322<a name="rw_java">
1323<dt><a href="http://www.javasoft.com">Java</a>
1324<DD>Desciption here<p>
1325
1326<a name="rw_net">
1327<dt><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/net">Microsoft .net</a>
1328<DD>Desciption here<p>
1329
1330<a name="rw_gccrtl">
1331<dt><a href="http://www.math.umn.edu/systems_guide/gcc-2.95.1/gcc_15.html">GNU RTL Intermediate Representation</a>
1332<DD>Desciption here<p>
1333
1334<a name="rw_ia64">
1335<dt><a href="http://developer.intel.com/design/ia-64/index.htm">IA64 Architecture &amp; Instruction Set</a>
1336<DD>Desciption here<p>
1337
1338<a name="rw_mmix">
1339<dt><a href="http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/mmix-news.html">MMIX Instruction Set</a>
1340<DD>Desciption here<p>
1341
1342<a name="rw_stroustrup">
1343<dt><a href="http://www.research.att.com/~bs/devXinterview.html">"Interview With Bjarne Stroustrup"</a>
1344<DD>This interview influenced the design and thought process behind LLVM in several ways, most notably the way that derived types are written in text format. See the question that starts with "you defined the C declarator syntax as an experiment that failed".<p>
1345</dl>
1346
1347<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
1348</ul><a name="rw_vectorization"><h3><hr size=0>Vectorized Architectures</h3><ul>
1349
1350<dl>
1351<a name="rw_intel_simd">
1352<dt>Intel MMX, MMX2, SSE, SSE2
1353<DD>Description here<p>
1354
1355<a name="rw_amd_simd">
1356<dt><a href="http://www.nondot.org/~sabre/os/H1ChipFeatures/3DNow!TechnologyManual.pdf">AMD 3Dnow!, 3Dnow! 2</a>
1357<DD>Desciption here<p>
1358
1359<a name="rw_sun_simd">
1360<dt><a href="http://www.nondot.org/~sabre/os/H1ChipFeatures/VISInstructionSetUsersManual.pdf">Sun VIS ISA</a>
1361<DD>Desciption here<p>
1362
1363
1364</dl>
1365
1366more...
1367
1368<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1369</ul>
1370<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
1371
1372
1373<hr>
1374<font size=-1>
1375<address><a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></address>
1376<!-- Created: Tue Jan 23 15:19:28 CST 2001 -->
1377<!-- hhmts start -->
Chris Lattner33ba0d92001-07-09 00:26:23 +00001378Last modified: Sun Jul 8 19:25:56 CDT 2001
Chris Lattner00950542001-06-06 20:29:01 +00001379<!-- hhmts end -->
1380</font>
1381</body></html>