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Bill Wendling45e93432012-08-08 06:42:30 +00001==========================================
2The LLVM Target-Independent Code Generator
3==========================================
4
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Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +000022.. contents::
23 :local:
24
25.. warning::
26 This is a work in progress.
27
28Introduction
29============
30
31The LLVM target-independent code generator is a framework that provides a suite
32of reusable components for translating the LLVM internal representation to the
33machine code for a specified target---either in assembly form (suitable for a
34static compiler) or in binary machine code format (usable for a JIT
35compiler). The LLVM target-independent code generator consists of six main
36components:
37
381. `Abstract target description`_ interfaces which capture important properties
39 about various aspects of the machine, independently of how they will be used.
40 These interfaces are defined in ``include/llvm/Target/``.
41
422. Classes used to represent the `code being generated`_ for a target. These
43 classes are intended to be abstract enough to represent the machine code for
44 *any* target machine. These classes are defined in
45 ``include/llvm/CodeGen/``. At this level, concepts like "constant pool
46 entries" and "jump tables" are explicitly exposed.
47
483. Classes and algorithms used to represent code as the object file level, the
49 `MC Layer`_. These classes represent assembly level constructs like labels,
50 sections, and instructions. At this level, concepts like "constant pool
51 entries" and "jump tables" don't exist.
52
534. `Target-independent algorithms`_ used to implement various phases of native
54 code generation (register allocation, scheduling, stack frame representation,
55 etc). This code lives in ``lib/CodeGen/``.
56
575. `Implementations of the abstract target description interfaces`_ for
58 particular targets. These machine descriptions make use of the components
59 provided by LLVM, and can optionally provide custom target-specific passes,
60 to build complete code generators for a specific target. Target descriptions
61 live in ``lib/Target/``.
62
636. The target-independent JIT components. The LLVM JIT is completely target
64 independent (it uses the ``TargetJITInfo`` structure to interface for
65 target-specific issues. The code for the target-independent JIT lives in
66 ``lib/ExecutionEngine/JIT``.
67
68Depending on which part of the code generator you are interested in working on,
69different pieces of this will be useful to you. In any case, you should be
70familiar with the `target description`_ and `machine code representation`_
71classes. If you want to add a backend for a new target, you will need to
72`implement the target description`_ classes for your new target and understand
73the `LLVM code representation <LangRef.html>`_. If you are interested in
74implementing a new `code generation algorithm`_, it should only depend on the
75target-description and machine code representation classes, ensuring that it is
76portable.
77
78Required components in the code generator
79-----------------------------------------
80
81The two pieces of the LLVM code generator are the high-level interface to the
82code generator and the set of reusable components that can be used to build
83target-specific backends. The two most important interfaces (:raw-html:`<tt>`
Micah Villmow791cfc22012-10-08 16:39:34 +000084`TargetMachine`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` and :raw-html:`<tt>` `DataLayout`_
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +000085:raw-html:`</tt>`) are the only ones that are required to be defined for a
86backend to fit into the LLVM system, but the others must be defined if the
87reusable code generator components are going to be used.
88
89This design has two important implications. The first is that LLVM can support
90completely non-traditional code generation targets. For example, the C backend
91does not require register allocation, instruction selection, or any of the other
92standard components provided by the system. As such, it only implements these
93two interfaces, and does its own thing. Note that C backend was removed from the
94trunk since LLVM 3.1 release. Another example of a code generator like this is a
95(purely hypothetical) backend that converts LLVM to the GCC RTL form and uses
96GCC to emit machine code for a target.
97
98This design also implies that it is possible to design and implement radically
99different code generators in the LLVM system that do not make use of any of the
100built-in components. Doing so is not recommended at all, but could be required
101for radically different targets that do not fit into the LLVM machine
102description model: FPGAs for example.
103
104.. _high-level design of the code generator:
105
106The high-level design of the code generator
107-------------------------------------------
108
109The LLVM target-independent code generator is designed to support efficient and
110quality code generation for standard register-based microprocessors. Code
111generation in this model is divided into the following stages:
112
1131. `Instruction Selection`_ --- This phase determines an efficient way to
114 express the input LLVM code in the target instruction set. This stage
115 produces the initial code for the program in the target instruction set, then
116 makes use of virtual registers in SSA form and physical registers that
117 represent any required register assignments due to target constraints or
118 calling conventions. This step turns the LLVM code into a DAG of target
119 instructions.
120
1212. `Scheduling and Formation`_ --- This phase takes the DAG of target
122 instructions produced by the instruction selection phase, determines an
123 ordering of the instructions, then emits the instructions as :raw-html:`<tt>`
124 `MachineInstr`_\s :raw-html:`</tt>` with that ordering. Note that we
125 describe this in the `instruction selection section`_ because it operates on
126 a `SelectionDAG`_.
127
1283. `SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations`_ --- This optional stage consists of a
129 series of machine-code optimizations that operate on the SSA-form produced by
130 the instruction selector. Optimizations like modulo-scheduling or peephole
131 optimization work here.
132
1334. `Register Allocation`_ --- The target code is transformed from an infinite
134 virtual register file in SSA form to the concrete register file used by the
135 target. This phase introduces spill code and eliminates all virtual register
136 references from the program.
137
1385. `Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion`_ --- Once the machine code has been generated
139 for the function and the amount of stack space required is known (used for
140 LLVM alloca's and spill slots), the prolog and epilog code for the function
141 can be inserted and "abstract stack location references" can be eliminated.
142 This stage is responsible for implementing optimizations like frame-pointer
143 elimination and stack packing.
144
1456. `Late Machine Code Optimizations`_ --- Optimizations that operate on "final"
146 machine code can go here, such as spill code scheduling and peephole
147 optimizations.
148
1497. `Code Emission`_ --- The final stage actually puts out the code for the
150 current function, either in the target assembler format or in machine
151 code.
152
153The code generator is based on the assumption that the instruction selector will
154use an optimal pattern matching selector to create high-quality sequences of
155native instructions. Alternative code generator designs based on pattern
156expansion and aggressive iterative peephole optimization are much slower. This
157design permits efficient compilation (important for JIT environments) and
158aggressive optimization (used when generating code offline) by allowing
159components of varying levels of sophistication to be used for any step of
160compilation.
161
162In addition to these stages, target implementations can insert arbitrary
163target-specific passes into the flow. For example, the X86 target uses a
164special pass to handle the 80x87 floating point stack architecture. Other
165targets with unusual requirements can be supported with custom passes as needed.
166
167Using TableGen for target description
168-------------------------------------
169
170The target description classes require a detailed description of the target
171architecture. These target descriptions often have a large amount of common
172information (e.g., an ``add`` instruction is almost identical to a ``sub``
173instruction). In order to allow the maximum amount of commonality to be
174factored out, the LLVM code generator uses the
Dmitri Gribenkob129b9b2012-11-29 16:12:13 +0000175:doc:`TableGen <TableGenFundamentals>` tool to describe big chunks of the
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000176target machine, which allows the use of domain-specific and target-specific
177abstractions to reduce the amount of repetition.
178
179As LLVM continues to be developed and refined, we plan to move more and more of
180the target description to the ``.td`` form. Doing so gives us a number of
181advantages. The most important is that it makes it easier to port LLVM because
182it reduces the amount of C++ code that has to be written, and the surface area
183of the code generator that needs to be understood before someone can get
184something working. Second, it makes it easier to change things. In particular,
185if tables and other things are all emitted by ``tblgen``, we only need a change
186in one place (``tblgen``) to update all of the targets to a new interface.
187
188.. _Abstract target description:
189.. _target description:
190
191Target description classes
192==========================
193
194The LLVM target description classes (located in the ``include/llvm/Target``
195directory) provide an abstract description of the target machine independent of
196any particular client. These classes are designed to capture the *abstract*
197properties of the target (such as the instructions and registers it has), and do
198not incorporate any particular pieces of code generation algorithms.
199
Micah Villmow791cfc22012-10-08 16:39:34 +0000200All of the target description classes (except the :raw-html:`<tt>` `DataLayout`_
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000201:raw-html:`</tt>` class) are designed to be subclassed by the concrete target
202implementation, and have virtual methods implemented. To get to these
203implementations, the :raw-html:`<tt>` `TargetMachine`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` class
204provides accessors that should be implemented by the target.
205
206.. _TargetMachine:
207
208The ``TargetMachine`` class
209---------------------------
210
211The ``TargetMachine`` class provides virtual methods that are used to access the
212target-specific implementations of the various target description classes via
213the ``get*Info`` methods (``getInstrInfo``, ``getRegisterInfo``,
214``getFrameInfo``, etc.). This class is designed to be specialized by a concrete
215target implementation (e.g., ``X86TargetMachine``) which implements the various
216virtual methods. The only required target description class is the
Micah Villmow791cfc22012-10-08 16:39:34 +0000217:raw-html:`<tt>` `DataLayout`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` class, but if the code
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000218generator components are to be used, the other interfaces should be implemented
219as well.
220
Micah Villmow791cfc22012-10-08 16:39:34 +0000221.. _DataLayout:
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000222
Micah Villmow791cfc22012-10-08 16:39:34 +0000223The ``DataLayout`` class
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000224------------------------
225
Micah Villmow791cfc22012-10-08 16:39:34 +0000226The ``DataLayout`` class is the only required target description class, and it
Dmitri Gribenkobb4c23f2012-11-02 18:06:51 +0000227is the only class that is not extensible (you cannot derive a new class from
Micah Villmow791cfc22012-10-08 16:39:34 +0000228it). ``DataLayout`` specifies information about how the target lays out memory
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000229for structures, the alignment requirements for various data types, the size of
230pointers in the target, and whether the target is little-endian or
231big-endian.
232
Dmitri Gribenkob129b9b2012-11-29 16:12:13 +0000233.. _TargetLowering:
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000234
235The ``TargetLowering`` class
236----------------------------
237
238The ``TargetLowering`` class is used by SelectionDAG based instruction selectors
239primarily to describe how LLVM code should be lowered to SelectionDAG
240operations. Among other things, this class indicates:
241
242* an initial register class to use for various ``ValueType``\s,
243
244* which operations are natively supported by the target machine,
245
246* the return type of ``setcc`` operations,
247
248* the type to use for shift amounts, and
249
250* various high-level characteristics, like whether it is profitable to turn
Dmitri Gribenkobb4c23f2012-11-02 18:06:51 +0000251 division by a constant into a multiplication sequence.
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000252
Dmitri Gribenko91cb6942012-12-01 12:13:48 +0000253.. _TargetRegisterInfo:
254
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000255The ``TargetRegisterInfo`` class
256--------------------------------
257
258The ``TargetRegisterInfo`` class is used to describe the register file of the
259target and any interactions between the registers.
260
Eli Bendersky97d6abe2012-10-31 16:41:07 +0000261Registers are represented in the code generator by unsigned integers. Physical
262registers (those that actually exist in the target description) are unique
263small numbers, and virtual registers are generally large. Note that
264register ``#0`` is reserved as a flag value.
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000265
266Each register in the processor description has an associated
267``TargetRegisterDesc`` entry, which provides a textual name for the register
268(used for assembly output and debugging dumps) and a set of aliases (used to
269indicate whether one register overlaps with another).
270
271In addition to the per-register description, the ``TargetRegisterInfo`` class
272exposes a set of processor specific register classes (instances of the
273``TargetRegisterClass`` class). Each register class contains sets of registers
274that have the same properties (for example, they are all 32-bit integer
275registers). Each SSA virtual register created by the instruction selector has
276an associated register class. When the register allocator runs, it replaces
277virtual registers with a physical register in the set.
278
279The target-specific implementations of these classes is auto-generated from a
280`TableGen <TableGenFundamentals.html>`_ description of the register file.
281
282.. _TargetInstrInfo:
283
284The ``TargetInstrInfo`` class
285-----------------------------
286
287The ``TargetInstrInfo`` class is used to describe the machine instructions
Eli Bendersky2f89e812013-01-30 20:54:21 +0000288supported by the target. Descriptions define things like the mnemonic for
289the opcode, the number of operands, the list of implicit register uses and defs,
290whether the instruction has certain target-independent properties (accesses
291memory, is commutable, etc), and holds any target-specific flags.
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000292
293The ``TargetFrameInfo`` class
294-----------------------------
295
296The ``TargetFrameInfo`` class is used to provide information about the stack
297frame layout of the target. It holds the direction of stack growth, the known
298stack alignment on entry to each function, and the offset to the local area.
299The offset to the local area is the offset from the stack pointer on function
300entry to the first location where function data (local variables, spill
301locations) can be stored.
302
303The ``TargetSubtarget`` class
304-----------------------------
305
306The ``TargetSubtarget`` class is used to provide information about the specific
307chip set being targeted. A sub-target informs code generation of which
308instructions are supported, instruction latencies and instruction execution
309itinerary; i.e., which processing units are used, in what order, and for how
310long.
311
312The ``TargetJITInfo`` class
313---------------------------
314
315The ``TargetJITInfo`` class exposes an abstract interface used by the
316Just-In-Time code generator to perform target-specific activities, such as
317emitting stubs. If a ``TargetMachine`` supports JIT code generation, it should
318provide one of these objects through the ``getJITInfo`` method.
319
320.. _code being generated:
321.. _machine code representation:
322
323Machine code description classes
324================================
325
326At the high-level, LLVM code is translated to a machine specific representation
327formed out of :raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineFunction`_ :raw-html:`</tt>`,
328:raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineBasicBlock`_ :raw-html:`</tt>`, and :raw-html:`<tt>`
329`MachineInstr`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` instances (defined in
330``include/llvm/CodeGen``). This representation is completely target agnostic,
331representing instructions in their most abstract form: an opcode and a series of
332operands. This representation is designed to support both an SSA representation
333for machine code, as well as a register allocated, non-SSA form.
334
335.. _MachineInstr:
336
337The ``MachineInstr`` class
338--------------------------
339
340Target machine instructions are represented as instances of the ``MachineInstr``
341class. This class is an extremely abstract way of representing machine
342instructions. In particular, it only keeps track of an opcode number and a set
343of operands.
344
345The opcode number is a simple unsigned integer that only has meaning to a
346specific backend. All of the instructions for a target should be defined in the
347``*InstrInfo.td`` file for the target. The opcode enum values are auto-generated
348from this description. The ``MachineInstr`` class does not have any information
349about how to interpret the instruction (i.e., what the semantics of the
350instruction are); for that you must refer to the :raw-html:`<tt>`
351`TargetInstrInfo`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` class.
352
353The operands of a machine instruction can be of several different types: a
354register reference, a constant integer, a basic block reference, etc. In
355addition, a machine operand should be marked as a def or a use of the value
356(though only registers are allowed to be defs).
357
358By convention, the LLVM code generator orders instruction operands so that all
359register definitions come before the register uses, even on architectures that
360are normally printed in other orders. For example, the SPARC add instruction:
361"``add %i1, %i2, %i3``" adds the "%i1", and "%i2" registers and stores the
362result into the "%i3" register. In the LLVM code generator, the operands should
363be stored as "``%i3, %i1, %i2``": with the destination first.
364
365Keeping destination (definition) operands at the beginning of the operand list
366has several advantages. In particular, the debugging printer will print the
367instruction like this:
368
369.. code-block:: llvm
370
371 %r3 = add %i1, %i2
372
373Also if the first operand is a def, it is easier to `create instructions`_ whose
374only def is the first operand.
375
376.. _create instructions:
377
378Using the ``MachineInstrBuilder.h`` functions
379^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
380
381Machine instructions are created by using the ``BuildMI`` functions, located in
382the ``include/llvm/CodeGen/MachineInstrBuilder.h`` file. The ``BuildMI``
383functions make it easy to build arbitrary machine instructions. Usage of the
384``BuildMI`` functions look like this:
385
386.. code-block:: c++
387
388 // Create a 'DestReg = mov 42' (rendered in X86 assembly as 'mov DestReg, 42')
389 // instruction. The '1' specifies how many operands will be added.
390 MachineInstr *MI = BuildMI(X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
391
392 // Create the same instr, but insert it at the end of a basic block.
Dmitri Gribenko8bd5e352012-09-30 20:51:02 +0000393 MachineBasicBlock &MBB = ...
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000394 BuildMI(MBB, X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
395
396 // Create the same instr, but insert it before a specified iterator point.
397 MachineBasicBlock::iterator MBBI = ...
398 BuildMI(MBB, MBBI, X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
399
400 // Create a 'cmp Reg, 0' instruction, no destination reg.
401 MI = BuildMI(X86::CMP32ri, 2).addReg(Reg).addImm(0);
402
403 // Create an 'sahf' instruction which takes no operands and stores nothing.
404 MI = BuildMI(X86::SAHF, 0);
405
406 // Create a self looping branch instruction.
Dmitri Gribenko8bd5e352012-09-30 20:51:02 +0000407 BuildMI(MBB, X86::JNE, 1).addMBB(&MBB);
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000408
409The key thing to remember with the ``BuildMI`` functions is that you have to
410specify the number of operands that the machine instruction will take. This
411allows for efficient memory allocation. You also need to specify if operands
412default to be uses of values, not definitions. If you need to add a definition
413operand (other than the optional destination register), you must explicitly mark
414it as such:
415
416.. code-block:: c++
417
418 MI.addReg(Reg, RegState::Define);
419
420Fixed (preassigned) registers
421^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
422
423One important issue that the code generator needs to be aware of is the presence
424of fixed registers. In particular, there are often places in the instruction
425stream where the register allocator *must* arrange for a particular value to be
426in a particular register. This can occur due to limitations of the instruction
427set (e.g., the X86 can only do a 32-bit divide with the ``EAX``/``EDX``
428registers), or external factors like calling conventions. In any case, the
429instruction selector should emit code that copies a virtual register into or out
430of a physical register when needed.
431
432For example, consider this simple LLVM example:
433
434.. code-block:: llvm
435
436 define i32 @test(i32 %X, i32 %Y) {
437 %Z = udiv i32 %X, %Y
438 ret i32 %Z
439 }
440
441The X86 instruction selector produces this machine code for the ``div`` and
442``ret`` (use "``llc X.bc -march=x86 -print-machineinstrs``" to get this):
443
444.. code-block:: llvm
445
446 ;; Start of div
447 %EAX = mov %reg1024 ;; Copy X (in reg1024) into EAX
448 %reg1027 = sar %reg1024, 31
449 %EDX = mov %reg1027 ;; Sign extend X into EDX
450 idiv %reg1025 ;; Divide by Y (in reg1025)
451 %reg1026 = mov %EAX ;; Read the result (Z) out of EAX
452
453 ;; Start of ret
454 %EAX = mov %reg1026 ;; 32-bit return value goes in EAX
455 ret
456
457By the end of code generation, the register allocator has coalesced the
458registers and deleted the resultant identity moves producing the following
459code:
460
461.. code-block:: llvm
462
463 ;; X is in EAX, Y is in ECX
464 mov %EAX, %EDX
465 sar %EDX, 31
466 idiv %ECX
467 ret
468
469This approach is extremely general (if it can handle the X86 architecture, it
470can handle anything!) and allows all of the target specific knowledge about the
471instruction stream to be isolated in the instruction selector. Note that
472physical registers should have a short lifetime for good code generation, and
473all physical registers are assumed dead on entry to and exit from basic blocks
474(before register allocation). Thus, if you need a value to be live across basic
475block boundaries, it *must* live in a virtual register.
476
477Call-clobbered registers
478^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
479
480Some machine instructions, like calls, clobber a large number of physical
481registers. Rather than adding ``<def,dead>`` operands for all of them, it is
482possible to use an ``MO_RegisterMask`` operand instead. The register mask
483operand holds a bit mask of preserved registers, and everything else is
484considered to be clobbered by the instruction.
485
486Machine code in SSA form
487^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
488
489``MachineInstr``'s are initially selected in SSA-form, and are maintained in
490SSA-form until register allocation happens. For the most part, this is
491trivially simple since LLVM is already in SSA form; LLVM PHI nodes become
492machine code PHI nodes, and virtual registers are only allowed to have a single
493definition.
494
495After register allocation, machine code is no longer in SSA-form because there
496are no virtual registers left in the code.
497
498.. _MachineBasicBlock:
499
500The ``MachineBasicBlock`` class
501-------------------------------
502
503The ``MachineBasicBlock`` class contains a list of machine instructions
504(:raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineInstr`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` instances). It roughly
505corresponds to the LLVM code input to the instruction selector, but there can be
506a one-to-many mapping (i.e. one LLVM basic block can map to multiple machine
507basic blocks). The ``MachineBasicBlock`` class has a "``getBasicBlock``" method,
508which returns the LLVM basic block that it comes from.
509
510.. _MachineFunction:
511
512The ``MachineFunction`` class
513-----------------------------
514
515The ``MachineFunction`` class contains a list of machine basic blocks
516(:raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineBasicBlock`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` instances). It
517corresponds one-to-one with the LLVM function input to the instruction selector.
518In addition to a list of basic blocks, the ``MachineFunction`` contains a a
519``MachineConstantPool``, a ``MachineFrameInfo``, a ``MachineFunctionInfo``, and
520a ``MachineRegisterInfo``. See ``include/llvm/CodeGen/MachineFunction.h`` for
521more information.
522
523``MachineInstr Bundles``
524------------------------
525
526LLVM code generator can model sequences of instructions as MachineInstr
527bundles. A MI bundle can model a VLIW group / pack which contains an arbitrary
528number of parallel instructions. It can also be used to model a sequential list
529of instructions (potentially with data dependencies) that cannot be legally
530separated (e.g. ARM Thumb2 IT blocks).
531
532Conceptually a MI bundle is a MI with a number of other MIs nested within:
533
534::
535
536 --------------
537 | Bundle | ---------
538 -------------- \
539 | ----------------
540 | | MI |
541 | ----------------
542 | |
543 | ----------------
544 | | MI |
545 | ----------------
546 | |
547 | ----------------
548 | | MI |
549 | ----------------
550 |
551 --------------
552 | Bundle | --------
553 -------------- \
554 | ----------------
555 | | MI |
556 | ----------------
557 | |
558 | ----------------
559 | | MI |
560 | ----------------
561 | |
562 | ...
563 |
564 --------------
565 | Bundle | --------
566 -------------- \
567 |
568 ...
569
570MI bundle support does not change the physical representations of
571MachineBasicBlock and MachineInstr. All the MIs (including top level and nested
572ones) are stored as sequential list of MIs. The "bundled" MIs are marked with
573the 'InsideBundle' flag. A top level MI with the special BUNDLE opcode is used
574to represent the start of a bundle. It's legal to mix BUNDLE MIs with indiviual
575MIs that are not inside bundles nor represent bundles.
576
577MachineInstr passes should operate on a MI bundle as a single unit. Member
578methods have been taught to correctly handle bundles and MIs inside bundles.
579The MachineBasicBlock iterator has been modified to skip over bundled MIs to
580enforce the bundle-as-a-single-unit concept. An alternative iterator
581instr_iterator has been added to MachineBasicBlock to allow passes to iterate
582over all of the MIs in a MachineBasicBlock, including those which are nested
583inside bundles. The top level BUNDLE instruction must have the correct set of
584register MachineOperand's that represent the cumulative inputs and outputs of
585the bundled MIs.
586
587Packing / bundling of MachineInstr's should be done as part of the register
588allocation super-pass. More specifically, the pass which determines what MIs
589should be bundled together must be done after code generator exits SSA form
590(i.e. after two-address pass, PHI elimination, and copy coalescing). Bundles
591should only be finalized (i.e. adding BUNDLE MIs and input and output register
592MachineOperands) after virtual registers have been rewritten into physical
593registers. This requirement eliminates the need to add virtual register operands
594to BUNDLE instructions which would effectively double the virtual register def
595and use lists.
596
597.. _MC Layer:
598
599The "MC" Layer
600==============
601
602The MC Layer is used to represent and process code at the raw machine code
603level, devoid of "high level" information like "constant pools", "jump tables",
604"global variables" or anything like that. At this level, LLVM handles things
605like label names, machine instructions, and sections in the object file. The
606code in this layer is used for a number of important purposes: the tail end of
607the code generator uses it to write a .s or .o file, and it is also used by the
608llvm-mc tool to implement standalone machine code assemblers and disassemblers.
609
610This section describes some of the important classes. There are also a number
611of important subsystems that interact at this layer, they are described later in
612this manual.
613
614.. _MCStreamer:
615
616The ``MCStreamer`` API
617----------------------
618
619MCStreamer is best thought of as an assembler API. It is an abstract API which
620is *implemented* in different ways (e.g. to output a .s file, output an ELF .o
621file, etc) but whose API correspond directly to what you see in a .s file.
622MCStreamer has one method per directive, such as EmitLabel, EmitSymbolAttribute,
623SwitchSection, EmitValue (for .byte, .word), etc, which directly correspond to
624assembly level directives. It also has an EmitInstruction method, which is used
625to output an MCInst to the streamer.
626
627This API is most important for two clients: the llvm-mc stand-alone assembler is
628effectively a parser that parses a line, then invokes a method on MCStreamer. In
629the code generator, the `Code Emission`_ phase of the code generator lowers
630higher level LLVM IR and Machine* constructs down to the MC layer, emitting
631directives through MCStreamer.
632
633On the implementation side of MCStreamer, there are two major implementations:
634one for writing out a .s file (MCAsmStreamer), and one for writing out a .o
635file (MCObjectStreamer). MCAsmStreamer is a straight-forward implementation
636that prints out a directive for each method (e.g. ``EmitValue -> .byte``), but
637MCObjectStreamer implements a full assembler.
638
639The ``MCContext`` class
640-----------------------
641
642The MCContext class is the owner of a variety of uniqued data structures at the
643MC layer, including symbols, sections, etc. As such, this is the class that you
644interact with to create symbols and sections. This class can not be subclassed.
645
646The ``MCSymbol`` class
647----------------------
648
649The MCSymbol class represents a symbol (aka label) in the assembly file. There
650are two interesting kinds of symbols: assembler temporary symbols, and normal
651symbols. Assembler temporary symbols are used and processed by the assembler
652but are discarded when the object file is produced. The distinction is usually
653represented by adding a prefix to the label, for example "L" labels are
654assembler temporary labels in MachO.
655
656MCSymbols are created by MCContext and uniqued there. This means that MCSymbols
657can be compared for pointer equivalence to find out if they are the same symbol.
658Note that pointer inequality does not guarantee the labels will end up at
659different addresses though. It's perfectly legal to output something like this
660to the .s file:
661
662::
663
664 foo:
665 bar:
666 .byte 4
667
668In this case, both the foo and bar symbols will have the same address.
669
670The ``MCSection`` class
671-----------------------
672
673The ``MCSection`` class represents an object-file specific section. It is
674subclassed by object file specific implementations (e.g. ``MCSectionMachO``,
675``MCSectionCOFF``, ``MCSectionELF``) and these are created and uniqued by
676MCContext. The MCStreamer has a notion of the current section, which can be
677changed with the SwitchToSection method (which corresponds to a ".section"
678directive in a .s file).
679
680.. _MCInst:
681
682The ``MCInst`` class
683--------------------
684
685The ``MCInst`` class is a target-independent representation of an instruction.
686It is a simple class (much more so than `MachineInstr`_) that holds a
687target-specific opcode and a vector of MCOperands. MCOperand, in turn, is a
688simple discriminated union of three cases: 1) a simple immediate, 2) a target
689register ID, 3) a symbolic expression (e.g. "``Lfoo-Lbar+42``") as an MCExpr.
690
691MCInst is the common currency used to represent machine instructions at the MC
692layer. It is the type used by the instruction encoder, the instruction printer,
693and the type generated by the assembly parser and disassembler.
694
695.. _Target-independent algorithms:
696.. _code generation algorithm:
697
698Target-independent code generation algorithms
699=============================================
700
701This section documents the phases described in the `high-level design of the
702code generator`_. It explains how they work and some of the rationale behind
703their design.
704
705.. _Instruction Selection:
706.. _instruction selection section:
707
708Instruction Selection
709---------------------
710
711Instruction Selection is the process of translating LLVM code presented to the
712code generator into target-specific machine instructions. There are several
713well-known ways to do this in the literature. LLVM uses a SelectionDAG based
714instruction selector.
715
716Portions of the DAG instruction selector are generated from the target
717description (``*.td``) files. Our goal is for the entire instruction selector
718to be generated from these ``.td`` files, though currently there are still
719things that require custom C++ code.
720
721.. _SelectionDAG:
722
723Introduction to SelectionDAGs
724^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
725
726The SelectionDAG provides an abstraction for code representation in a way that
727is amenable to instruction selection using automatic techniques
728(e.g. dynamic-programming based optimal pattern matching selectors). It is also
729well-suited to other phases of code generation; in particular, instruction
730scheduling (SelectionDAG's are very close to scheduling DAGs post-selection).
731Additionally, the SelectionDAG provides a host representation where a large
732variety of very-low-level (but target-independent) `optimizations`_ may be
733performed; ones which require extensive information about the instructions
734efficiently supported by the target.
735
736The SelectionDAG is a Directed-Acyclic-Graph whose nodes are instances of the
737``SDNode`` class. The primary payload of the ``SDNode`` is its operation code
738(Opcode) that indicates what operation the node performs and the operands to the
739operation. The various operation node types are described at the top of the
740``include/llvm/CodeGen/SelectionDAGNodes.h`` file.
741
742Although most operations define a single value, each node in the graph may
743define multiple values. For example, a combined div/rem operation will define
744both the dividend and the remainder. Many other situations require multiple
745values as well. Each node also has some number of operands, which are edges to
746the node defining the used value. Because nodes may define multiple values,
747edges are represented by instances of the ``SDValue`` class, which is a
748``<SDNode, unsigned>`` pair, indicating the node and result value being used,
749respectively. Each value produced by an ``SDNode`` has an associated ``MVT``
750(Machine Value Type) indicating what the type of the value is.
751
752SelectionDAGs contain two different kinds of values: those that represent data
753flow and those that represent control flow dependencies. Data values are simple
754edges with an integer or floating point value type. Control edges are
755represented as "chain" edges which are of type ``MVT::Other``. These edges
756provide an ordering between nodes that have side effects (such as loads, stores,
757calls, returns, etc). All nodes that have side effects should take a token
758chain as input and produce a new one as output. By convention, token chain
759inputs are always operand #0, and chain results are always the last value
760produced by an operation.
761
762A SelectionDAG has designated "Entry" and "Root" nodes. The Entry node is
763always a marker node with an Opcode of ``ISD::EntryToken``. The Root node is
764the final side-effecting node in the token chain. For example, in a single basic
765block function it would be the return node.
766
767One important concept for SelectionDAGs is the notion of a "legal" vs.
768"illegal" DAG. A legal DAG for a target is one that only uses supported
769operations and supported types. On a 32-bit PowerPC, for example, a DAG with a
770value of type i1, i8, i16, or i64 would be illegal, as would a DAG that uses a
771SREM or UREM operation. The `legalize types`_ and `legalize operations`_ phases
772are responsible for turning an illegal DAG into a legal DAG.
773
Dmitri Gribenko91cb6942012-12-01 12:13:48 +0000774.. _SelectionDAG-Process:
775
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000776SelectionDAG Instruction Selection Process
777^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
778
779SelectionDAG-based instruction selection consists of the following steps:
780
781#. `Build initial DAG`_ --- This stage performs a simple translation from the
782 input LLVM code to an illegal SelectionDAG.
783
784#. `Optimize SelectionDAG`_ --- This stage performs simple optimizations on the
785 SelectionDAG to simplify it, and recognize meta instructions (like rotates
786 and ``div``/``rem`` pairs) for targets that support these meta operations.
787 This makes the resultant code more efficient and the `select instructions
788 from DAG`_ phase (below) simpler.
789
790#. `Legalize SelectionDAG Types`_ --- This stage transforms SelectionDAG nodes
791 to eliminate any types that are unsupported on the target.
792
793#. `Optimize SelectionDAG`_ --- The SelectionDAG optimizer is run to clean up
794 redundancies exposed by type legalization.
795
796#. `Legalize SelectionDAG Ops`_ --- This stage transforms SelectionDAG nodes to
797 eliminate any operations that are unsupported on the target.
798
799#. `Optimize SelectionDAG`_ --- The SelectionDAG optimizer is run to eliminate
800 inefficiencies introduced by operation legalization.
801
802#. `Select instructions from DAG`_ --- Finally, the target instruction selector
803 matches the DAG operations to target instructions. This process translates
804 the target-independent input DAG into another DAG of target instructions.
805
806#. `SelectionDAG Scheduling and Formation`_ --- The last phase assigns a linear
807 order to the instructions in the target-instruction DAG and emits them into
808 the MachineFunction being compiled. This step uses traditional prepass
809 scheduling techniques.
810
811After all of these steps are complete, the SelectionDAG is destroyed and the
812rest of the code generation passes are run.
813
814One great way to visualize what is going on here is to take advantage of a few
815LLC command line options. The following options pop up a window displaying the
816SelectionDAG at specific times (if you only get errors printed to the console
817while using this, you probably `need to configure your
818system <ProgrammersManual.html#ViewGraph>`_ to add support for it).
819
820* ``-view-dag-combine1-dags`` displays the DAG after being built, before the
821 first optimization pass.
822
823* ``-view-legalize-dags`` displays the DAG before Legalization.
824
825* ``-view-dag-combine2-dags`` displays the DAG before the second optimization
826 pass.
827
828* ``-view-isel-dags`` displays the DAG before the Select phase.
829
830* ``-view-sched-dags`` displays the DAG before Scheduling.
831
832The ``-view-sunit-dags`` displays the Scheduler's dependency graph. This graph
833is based on the final SelectionDAG, with nodes that must be scheduled together
834bundled into a single scheduling-unit node, and with immediate operands and
835other nodes that aren't relevant for scheduling omitted.
836
837.. _Build initial DAG:
838
839Initial SelectionDAG Construction
840^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
841
842The initial SelectionDAG is na\ :raw-html:`&iuml;`\ vely peephole expanded from
Eli Bendersky87a1af42012-11-05 02:59:23 +0000843the LLVM input by the ``SelectionDAGBuilder`` class. The intent of this pass
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000844is to expose as much low-level, target-specific details to the SelectionDAG as
845possible. This pass is mostly hard-coded (e.g. an LLVM ``add`` turns into an
846``SDNode add`` while a ``getelementptr`` is expanded into the obvious
847arithmetic). This pass requires target-specific hooks to lower calls, returns,
848varargs, etc. For these features, the :raw-html:`<tt>` `TargetLowering`_
849:raw-html:`</tt>` interface is used.
850
851.. _legalize types:
852.. _Legalize SelectionDAG Types:
853.. _Legalize SelectionDAG Ops:
854
855SelectionDAG LegalizeTypes Phase
856^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
857
858The Legalize phase is in charge of converting a DAG to only use the types that
859are natively supported by the target.
860
861There are two main ways of converting values of unsupported scalar types to
862values of supported types: converting small types to larger types ("promoting"),
863and breaking up large integer types into smaller ones ("expanding"). For
864example, a target might require that all f32 values are promoted to f64 and that
865all i1/i8/i16 values are promoted to i32. The same target might require that
866all i64 values be expanded into pairs of i32 values. These changes can insert
867sign and zero extensions as needed to make sure that the final code has the same
868behavior as the input.
869
870There are two main ways of converting values of unsupported vector types to
871value of supported types: splitting vector types, multiple times if necessary,
872until a legal type is found, and extending vector types by adding elements to
873the end to round them out to legal types ("widening"). If a vector gets split
874all the way down to single-element parts with no supported vector type being
875found, the elements are converted to scalars ("scalarizing").
876
877A target implementation tells the legalizer which types are supported (and which
878register class to use for them) by calling the ``addRegisterClass`` method in
Dmitri Gribenkob129b9b2012-11-29 16:12:13 +0000879its ``TargetLowering`` constructor.
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000880
881.. _legalize operations:
882.. _Legalizer:
883
884SelectionDAG Legalize Phase
885^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
886
887The Legalize phase is in charge of converting a DAG to only use the operations
888that are natively supported by the target.
889
890Targets often have weird constraints, such as not supporting every operation on
891every supported datatype (e.g. X86 does not support byte conditional moves and
892PowerPC does not support sign-extending loads from a 16-bit memory location).
893Legalize takes care of this by open-coding another sequence of operations to
894emulate the operation ("expansion"), by promoting one type to a larger type that
895supports the operation ("promotion"), or by using a target-specific hook to
896implement the legalization ("custom").
897
898A target implementation tells the legalizer which operations are not supported
899(and which of the above three actions to take) by calling the
900``setOperationAction`` method in its ``TargetLowering`` constructor.
901
902Prior to the existence of the Legalize passes, we required that every target
903`selector`_ supported and handled every operator and type even if they are not
904natively supported. The introduction of the Legalize phases allows all of the
905canonicalization patterns to be shared across targets, and makes it very easy to
906optimize the canonicalized code because it is still in the form of a DAG.
907
908.. _optimizations:
909.. _Optimize SelectionDAG:
910.. _selector:
911
912SelectionDAG Optimization Phase: the DAG Combiner
913^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
914
915The SelectionDAG optimization phase is run multiple times for code generation,
916immediately after the DAG is built and once after each legalization. The first
917run of the pass allows the initial code to be cleaned up (e.g. performing
918optimizations that depend on knowing that the operators have restricted type
919inputs). Subsequent runs of the pass clean up the messy code generated by the
920Legalize passes, which allows Legalize to be very simple (it can focus on making
921code legal instead of focusing on generating *good* and legal code).
922
923One important class of optimizations performed is optimizing inserted sign and
924zero extension instructions. We currently use ad-hoc techniques, but could move
925to more rigorous techniques in the future. Here are some good papers on the
926subject:
927
928"`Widening integer arithmetic <http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~nr/pubs/widen-abstract.html>`_" :raw-html:`<br>`
929Kevin Redwine and Norman Ramsey :raw-html:`<br>`
930International Conference on Compiler Construction (CC) 2004
931
932"`Effective sign extension elimination <http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=512529.512552>`_" :raw-html:`<br>`
933Motohiro Kawahito, Hideaki Komatsu, and Toshio Nakatani :raw-html:`<br>`
934Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 2002 Conference on Programming Language Design
935and Implementation.
936
937.. _Select instructions from DAG:
938
939SelectionDAG Select Phase
940^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
941
942The Select phase is the bulk of the target-specific code for instruction
943selection. This phase takes a legal SelectionDAG as input, pattern matches the
944instructions supported by the target to this DAG, and produces a new DAG of
945target code. For example, consider the following LLVM fragment:
946
947.. code-block:: llvm
948
949 %t1 = fadd float %W, %X
950 %t2 = fmul float %t1, %Y
951 %t3 = fadd float %t2, %Z
952
953This LLVM code corresponds to a SelectionDAG that looks basically like this:
954
955.. code-block:: llvm
956
957 (fadd:f32 (fmul:f32 (fadd:f32 W, X), Y), Z)
958
959If a target supports floating point multiply-and-add (FMA) operations, one of
960the adds can be merged with the multiply. On the PowerPC, for example, the
961output of the instruction selector might look like this DAG:
962
963::
964
965 (FMADDS (FADDS W, X), Y, Z)
966
967The ``FMADDS`` instruction is a ternary instruction that multiplies its first
968two operands and adds the third (as single-precision floating-point numbers).
969The ``FADDS`` instruction is a simple binary single-precision add instruction.
970To perform this pattern match, the PowerPC backend includes the following
971instruction definitions:
972
Sean Silva2d4a4772012-11-19 21:18:50 +0000973.. code-block:: text
974 :emphasize-lines: 4-5,9
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000975
976 def FMADDS : AForm_1<59, 29,
977 (ops F4RC:$FRT, F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRC, F4RC:$FRB),
978 "fmadds $FRT, $FRA, $FRC, $FRB",
979 [(set F4RC:$FRT, (fadd (fmul F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRC),
980 F4RC:$FRB))]>;
981 def FADDS : AForm_2<59, 21,
982 (ops F4RC:$FRT, F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRB),
983 "fadds $FRT, $FRA, $FRB",
984 [(set F4RC:$FRT, (fadd F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRB))]>;
985
Sean Silva2d4a4772012-11-19 21:18:50 +0000986The highlighted portion of the instruction definitions indicates the pattern
987used to match the instructions. The DAG operators (like ``fmul``/``fadd``)
988are defined in the ``include/llvm/Target/TargetSelectionDAG.td`` file.
989"``F4RC``" is the register class of the input and result values.
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +0000990
991The TableGen DAG instruction selector generator reads the instruction patterns
992in the ``.td`` file and automatically builds parts of the pattern matching code
993for your target. It has the following strengths:
994
995* At compiler-compiler time, it analyzes your instruction patterns and tells you
996 if your patterns make sense or not.
997
998* It can handle arbitrary constraints on operands for the pattern match. In
999 particular, it is straight-forward to say things like "match any immediate
1000 that is a 13-bit sign-extended value". For examples, see the ``immSExt16``
1001 and related ``tblgen`` classes in the PowerPC backend.
1002
1003* It knows several important identities for the patterns defined. For example,
1004 it knows that addition is commutative, so it allows the ``FMADDS`` pattern
1005 above to match "``(fadd X, (fmul Y, Z))``" as well as "``(fadd (fmul X, Y),
1006 Z)``", without the target author having to specially handle this case.
1007
1008* It has a full-featured type-inferencing system. In particular, you should
1009 rarely have to explicitly tell the system what type parts of your patterns
1010 are. In the ``FMADDS`` case above, we didn't have to tell ``tblgen`` that all
1011 of the nodes in the pattern are of type 'f32'. It was able to infer and
1012 propagate this knowledge from the fact that ``F4RC`` has type 'f32'.
1013
1014* Targets can define their own (and rely on built-in) "pattern fragments".
1015 Pattern fragments are chunks of reusable patterns that get inlined into your
1016 patterns during compiler-compiler time. For example, the integer "``(not
1017 x)``" operation is actually defined as a pattern fragment that expands as
1018 "``(xor x, -1)``", since the SelectionDAG does not have a native '``not``'
1019 operation. Targets can define their own short-hand fragments as they see fit.
1020 See the definition of '``not``' and '``ineg``' for examples.
1021
1022* In addition to instructions, targets can specify arbitrary patterns that map
1023 to one or more instructions using the 'Pat' class. For example, the PowerPC
1024 has no way to load an arbitrary integer immediate into a register in one
1025 instruction. To tell tblgen how to do this, it defines:
1026
1027 ::
1028
1029 // Arbitrary immediate support. Implement in terms of LIS/ORI.
1030 def : Pat<(i32 imm:$imm),
1031 (ORI (LIS (HI16 imm:$imm)), (LO16 imm:$imm))>;
1032
1033 If none of the single-instruction patterns for loading an immediate into a
1034 register match, this will be used. This rule says "match an arbitrary i32
1035 immediate, turning it into an ``ORI`` ('or a 16-bit immediate') and an ``LIS``
1036 ('load 16-bit immediate, where the immediate is shifted to the left 16 bits')
1037 instruction". To make this work, the ``LO16``/``HI16`` node transformations
1038 are used to manipulate the input immediate (in this case, take the high or low
1039 16-bits of the immediate).
1040
Ulrich Weigandec8d1a52013-03-19 19:51:09 +00001041* When using the 'Pat' class to map a pattern to an instruction that has one
1042 or more complex operands (like e.g. `X86 addressing mode`_), the pattern may
1043 either specify the operand as a whole using a ``ComplexPattern``, or else it
1044 may specify the components of the complex operand separately. The latter is
1045 done e.g. for pre-increment instructions by the PowerPC back end:
1046
1047 ::
1048
1049 def STWU : DForm_1<37, (outs ptr_rc:$ea_res), (ins GPRC:$rS, memri:$dst),
1050 "stwu $rS, $dst", LdStStoreUpd, []>,
1051 RegConstraint<"$dst.reg = $ea_res">, NoEncode<"$ea_res">;
1052
1053 def : Pat<(pre_store GPRC:$rS, ptr_rc:$ptrreg, iaddroff:$ptroff),
1054 (STWU GPRC:$rS, iaddroff:$ptroff, ptr_rc:$ptrreg)>;
1055
1056 Here, the pair of ``ptroff`` and ``ptrreg`` operands is matched onto the
1057 complex operand ``dst`` of class ``memri`` in the ``STWU`` instruction.
1058
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001059* While the system does automate a lot, it still allows you to write custom C++
1060 code to match special cases if there is something that is hard to
1061 express.
1062
1063While it has many strengths, the system currently has some limitations,
1064primarily because it is a work in progress and is not yet finished:
1065
1066* Overall, there is no way to define or match SelectionDAG nodes that define
1067 multiple values (e.g. ``SMUL_LOHI``, ``LOAD``, ``CALL``, etc). This is the
1068 biggest reason that you currently still *have to* write custom C++ code
1069 for your instruction selector.
1070
1071* There is no great way to support matching complex addressing modes yet. In
1072 the future, we will extend pattern fragments to allow them to define multiple
1073 values (e.g. the four operands of the `X86 addressing mode`_, which are
1074 currently matched with custom C++ code). In addition, we'll extend fragments
1075 so that a fragment can match multiple different patterns.
1076
1077* We don't automatically infer flags like ``isStore``/``isLoad`` yet.
1078
1079* We don't automatically generate the set of supported registers and operations
1080 for the `Legalizer`_ yet.
1081
1082* We don't have a way of tying in custom legalized nodes yet.
1083
1084Despite these limitations, the instruction selector generator is still quite
1085useful for most of the binary and logical operations in typical instruction
1086sets. If you run into any problems or can't figure out how to do something,
1087please let Chris know!
1088
1089.. _Scheduling and Formation:
1090.. _SelectionDAG Scheduling and Formation:
1091
1092SelectionDAG Scheduling and Formation Phase
1093^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1094
1095The scheduling phase takes the DAG of target instructions from the selection
1096phase and assigns an order. The scheduler can pick an order depending on
1097various constraints of the machines (i.e. order for minimal register pressure or
1098try to cover instruction latencies). Once an order is established, the DAG is
1099converted to a list of :raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineInstr`_\s :raw-html:`</tt>` and
1100the SelectionDAG is destroyed.
1101
1102Note that this phase is logically separate from the instruction selection phase,
1103but is tied to it closely in the code because it operates on SelectionDAGs.
1104
1105Future directions for the SelectionDAG
1106^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1107
1108#. Optional function-at-a-time selection.
1109
1110#. Auto-generate entire selector from ``.td`` file.
1111
1112.. _SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations:
1113
1114SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations
1115------------------------------------
1116
1117To Be Written
1118
1119Live Intervals
1120--------------
1121
1122Live Intervals are the ranges (intervals) where a variable is *live*. They are
1123used by some `register allocator`_ passes to determine if two or more virtual
1124registers which require the same physical register are live at the same point in
1125the program (i.e., they conflict). When this situation occurs, one virtual
1126register must be *spilled*.
1127
1128Live Variable Analysis
1129^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1130
1131The first step in determining the live intervals of variables is to calculate
1132the set of registers that are immediately dead after the instruction (i.e., the
1133instruction calculates the value, but it is never used) and the set of registers
1134that are used by the instruction, but are never used after the instruction
1135(i.e., they are killed). Live variable information is computed for
1136each *virtual* register and *register allocatable* physical register
1137in the function. This is done in a very efficient manner because it uses SSA to
1138sparsely compute lifetime information for virtual registers (which are in SSA
1139form) and only has to track physical registers within a block. Before register
1140allocation, LLVM can assume that physical registers are only live within a
1141single basic block. This allows it to do a single, local analysis to resolve
1142physical register lifetimes within each basic block. If a physical register is
1143not register allocatable (e.g., a stack pointer or condition codes), it is not
1144tracked.
1145
1146Physical registers may be live in to or out of a function. Live in values are
1147typically arguments in registers. Live out values are typically return values in
1148registers. Live in values are marked as such, and are given a dummy "defining"
1149instruction during live intervals analysis. If the last basic block of a
1150function is a ``return``, then it's marked as using all live out values in the
1151function.
1152
1153``PHI`` nodes need to be handled specially, because the calculation of the live
1154variable information from a depth first traversal of the CFG of the function
1155won't guarantee that a virtual register used by the ``PHI`` node is defined
1156before it's used. When a ``PHI`` node is encountered, only the definition is
1157handled, because the uses will be handled in other basic blocks.
1158
1159For each ``PHI`` node of the current basic block, we simulate an assignment at
1160the end of the current basic block and traverse the successor basic blocks. If a
1161successor basic block has a ``PHI`` node and one of the ``PHI`` node's operands
1162is coming from the current basic block, then the variable is marked as *alive*
1163within the current basic block and all of its predecessor basic blocks, until
1164the basic block with the defining instruction is encountered.
1165
1166Live Intervals Analysis
1167^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1168
1169We now have the information available to perform the live intervals analysis and
1170build the live intervals themselves. We start off by numbering the basic blocks
1171and machine instructions. We then handle the "live-in" values. These are in
1172physical registers, so the physical register is assumed to be killed by the end
1173of the basic block. Live intervals for virtual registers are computed for some
1174ordering of the machine instructions ``[1, N]``. A live interval is an interval
1175``[i, j)``, where ``1 >= i >= j > N``, for which a variable is live.
1176
1177.. note::
1178 More to come...
1179
1180.. _Register Allocation:
1181.. _register allocator:
1182
1183Register Allocation
1184-------------------
1185
1186The *Register Allocation problem* consists in mapping a program
1187:raw-html:`<b><tt>` P\ :sub:`v`\ :raw-html:`</tt></b>`, that can use an unbounded
1188number of virtual registers, to a program :raw-html:`<b><tt>` P\ :sub:`p`\
1189:raw-html:`</tt></b>` that contains a finite (possibly small) number of physical
1190registers. Each target architecture has a different number of physical
1191registers. If the number of physical registers is not enough to accommodate all
1192the virtual registers, some of them will have to be mapped into memory. These
1193virtuals are called *spilled virtuals*.
1194
1195How registers are represented in LLVM
1196^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1197
1198In LLVM, physical registers are denoted by integer numbers that normally range
1199from 1 to 1023. To see how this numbering is defined for a particular
1200architecture, you can read the ``GenRegisterNames.inc`` file for that
1201architecture. For instance, by inspecting
1202``lib/Target/X86/X86GenRegisterInfo.inc`` we see that the 32-bit register
1203``EAX`` is denoted by 43, and the MMX register ``MM0`` is mapped to 65.
1204
1205Some architectures contain registers that share the same physical location. A
1206notable example is the X86 platform. For instance, in the X86 architecture, the
1207registers ``EAX``, ``AX`` and ``AL`` share the first eight bits. These physical
1208registers are marked as *aliased* in LLVM. Given a particular architecture, you
1209can check which registers are aliased by inspecting its ``RegisterInfo.td``
1210file. Moreover, the class ``MCRegAliasIterator`` enumerates all the physical
1211registers aliased to a register.
1212
1213Physical registers, in LLVM, are grouped in *Register Classes*. Elements in the
1214same register class are functionally equivalent, and can be interchangeably
1215used. Each virtual register can only be mapped to physical registers of a
1216particular class. For instance, in the X86 architecture, some virtuals can only
1217be allocated to 8 bit registers. A register class is described by
1218``TargetRegisterClass`` objects. To discover if a virtual register is
1219compatible with a given physical, this code can be used:</p>
1220
1221.. code-block:: c++
1222
1223 bool RegMapping_Fer::compatible_class(MachineFunction &mf,
1224 unsigned v_reg,
1225 unsigned p_reg) {
1226 assert(TargetRegisterInfo::isPhysicalRegister(p_reg) &&
1227 "Target register must be physical");
1228 const TargetRegisterClass *trc = mf.getRegInfo().getRegClass(v_reg);
1229 return trc->contains(p_reg);
1230 }
1231
1232Sometimes, mostly for debugging purposes, it is useful to change the number of
1233physical registers available in the target architecture. This must be done
1234statically, inside the ``TargetRegsterInfo.td`` file. Just ``grep`` for
1235``RegisterClass``, the last parameter of which is a list of registers. Just
1236commenting some out is one simple way to avoid them being used. A more polite
1237way is to explicitly exclude some registers from the *allocation order*. See the
1238definition of the ``GR8`` register class in
1239``lib/Target/X86/X86RegisterInfo.td`` for an example of this.
1240
1241Virtual registers are also denoted by integer numbers. Contrary to physical
1242registers, different virtual registers never share the same number. Whereas
1243physical registers are statically defined in a ``TargetRegisterInfo.td`` file
1244and cannot be created by the application developer, that is not the case with
1245virtual registers. In order to create new virtual registers, use the method
1246``MachineRegisterInfo::createVirtualRegister()``. This method will return a new
1247virtual register. Use an ``IndexedMap<Foo, VirtReg2IndexFunctor>`` to hold
1248information per virtual register. If you need to enumerate all virtual
1249registers, use the function ``TargetRegisterInfo::index2VirtReg()`` to find the
1250virtual register numbers:
1251
1252.. code-block:: c++
1253
1254 for (unsigned i = 0, e = MRI->getNumVirtRegs(); i != e; ++i) {
1255 unsigned VirtReg = TargetRegisterInfo::index2VirtReg(i);
1256 stuff(VirtReg);
1257 }
1258
1259Before register allocation, the operands of an instruction are mostly virtual
1260registers, although physical registers may also be used. In order to check if a
1261given machine operand is a register, use the boolean function
1262``MachineOperand::isRegister()``. To obtain the integer code of a register, use
1263``MachineOperand::getReg()``. An instruction may define or use a register. For
1264instance, ``ADD reg:1026 := reg:1025 reg:1024`` defines the registers 1024, and
1265uses registers 1025 and 1026. Given a register operand, the method
1266``MachineOperand::isUse()`` informs if that register is being used by the
1267instruction. The method ``MachineOperand::isDef()`` informs if that registers is
1268being defined.
1269
1270We will call physical registers present in the LLVM bitcode before register
1271allocation *pre-colored registers*. Pre-colored registers are used in many
1272different situations, for instance, to pass parameters of functions calls, and
1273to store results of particular instructions. There are two types of pre-colored
1274registers: the ones *implicitly* defined, and those *explicitly*
1275defined. Explicitly defined registers are normal operands, and can be accessed
1276with ``MachineInstr::getOperand(int)::getReg()``. In order to check which
1277registers are implicitly defined by an instruction, use the
1278``TargetInstrInfo::get(opcode)::ImplicitDefs``, where ``opcode`` is the opcode
1279of the target instruction. One important difference between explicit and
1280implicit physical registers is that the latter are defined statically for each
1281instruction, whereas the former may vary depending on the program being
1282compiled. For example, an instruction that represents a function call will
1283always implicitly define or use the same set of physical registers. To read the
1284registers implicitly used by an instruction, use
1285``TargetInstrInfo::get(opcode)::ImplicitUses``. Pre-colored registers impose
1286constraints on any register allocation algorithm. The register allocator must
1287make sure that none of them are overwritten by the values of virtual registers
1288while still alive.
1289
1290Mapping virtual registers to physical registers
1291^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1292
1293There are two ways to map virtual registers to physical registers (or to memory
1294slots). The first way, that we will call *direct mapping*, is based on the use
1295of methods of the classes ``TargetRegisterInfo``, and ``MachineOperand``. The
1296second way, that we will call *indirect mapping*, relies on the ``VirtRegMap``
1297class in order to insert loads and stores sending and getting values to and from
1298memory.
1299
1300The direct mapping provides more flexibility to the developer of the register
1301allocator; however, it is more error prone, and demands more implementation
1302work. Basically, the programmer will have to specify where load and store
1303instructions should be inserted in the target function being compiled in order
1304to get and store values in memory. To assign a physical register to a virtual
1305register present in a given operand, use ``MachineOperand::setReg(p_reg)``. To
1306insert a store instruction, use ``TargetInstrInfo::storeRegToStackSlot(...)``,
1307and to insert a load instruction, use ``TargetInstrInfo::loadRegFromStackSlot``.
1308
1309The indirect mapping shields the application developer from the complexities of
1310inserting load and store instructions. In order to map a virtual register to a
1311physical one, use ``VirtRegMap::assignVirt2Phys(vreg, preg)``. In order to map
1312a certain virtual register to memory, use
1313``VirtRegMap::assignVirt2StackSlot(vreg)``. This method will return the stack
1314slot where ``vreg``'s value will be located. If it is necessary to map another
1315virtual register to the same stack slot, use
1316``VirtRegMap::assignVirt2StackSlot(vreg, stack_location)``. One important point
1317to consider when using the indirect mapping, is that even if a virtual register
1318is mapped to memory, it still needs to be mapped to a physical register. This
1319physical register is the location where the virtual register is supposed to be
1320found before being stored or after being reloaded.
1321
1322If the indirect strategy is used, after all the virtual registers have been
1323mapped to physical registers or stack slots, it is necessary to use a spiller
1324object to place load and store instructions in the code. Every virtual that has
1325been mapped to a stack slot will be stored to memory after been defined and will
1326be loaded before being used. The implementation of the spiller tries to recycle
1327load/store instructions, avoiding unnecessary instructions. For an example of
1328how to invoke the spiller, see ``RegAllocLinearScan::runOnMachineFunction`` in
1329``lib/CodeGen/RegAllocLinearScan.cpp``.
1330
1331Handling two address instructions
1332^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1333
1334With very rare exceptions (e.g., function calls), the LLVM machine code
1335instructions are three address instructions. That is, each instruction is
1336expected to define at most one register, and to use at most two registers.
1337However, some architectures use two address instructions. In this case, the
1338defined register is also one of the used register. For instance, an instruction
1339such as ``ADD %EAX, %EBX``, in X86 is actually equivalent to ``%EAX = %EAX +
1340%EBX``.
1341
1342In order to produce correct code, LLVM must convert three address instructions
1343that represent two address instructions into true two address instructions. LLVM
1344provides the pass ``TwoAddressInstructionPass`` for this specific purpose. It
1345must be run before register allocation takes place. After its execution, the
1346resulting code may no longer be in SSA form. This happens, for instance, in
1347situations where an instruction such as ``%a = ADD %b %c`` is converted to two
1348instructions such as:
1349
1350::
1351
1352 %a = MOVE %b
1353 %a = ADD %a %c
1354
1355Notice that, internally, the second instruction is represented as ``ADD
1356%a[def/use] %c``. I.e., the register operand ``%a`` is both used and defined by
1357the instruction.
1358
1359The SSA deconstruction phase
1360^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1361
1362An important transformation that happens during register allocation is called
1363the *SSA Deconstruction Phase*. The SSA form simplifies many analyses that are
1364performed on the control flow graph of programs. However, traditional
1365instruction sets do not implement PHI instructions. Thus, in order to generate
1366executable code, compilers must replace PHI instructions with other instructions
1367that preserve their semantics.
1368
1369There are many ways in which PHI instructions can safely be removed from the
1370target code. The most traditional PHI deconstruction algorithm replaces PHI
1371instructions with copy instructions. That is the strategy adopted by LLVM. The
1372SSA deconstruction algorithm is implemented in
1373``lib/CodeGen/PHIElimination.cpp``. In order to invoke this pass, the identifier
1374``PHIEliminationID`` must be marked as required in the code of the register
1375allocator.
1376
1377Instruction folding
1378^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1379
1380*Instruction folding* is an optimization performed during register allocation
1381that removes unnecessary copy instructions. For instance, a sequence of
1382instructions such as:
1383
1384::
1385
1386 %EBX = LOAD %mem_address
1387 %EAX = COPY %EBX
1388
1389can be safely substituted by the single instruction:
1390
1391::
1392
1393 %EAX = LOAD %mem_address
1394
1395Instructions can be folded with the
1396``TargetRegisterInfo::foldMemoryOperand(...)`` method. Care must be taken when
1397folding instructions; a folded instruction can be quite different from the
1398original instruction. See ``LiveIntervals::addIntervalsForSpills`` in
1399``lib/CodeGen/LiveIntervalAnalysis.cpp`` for an example of its use.
1400
1401Built in register allocators
1402^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1403
1404The LLVM infrastructure provides the application developer with three different
1405register allocators:
1406
1407* *Fast* --- This register allocator is the default for debug builds. It
1408 allocates registers on a basic block level, attempting to keep values in
1409 registers and reusing registers as appropriate.
1410
1411* *Basic* --- This is an incremental approach to register allocation. Live
1412 ranges are assigned to registers one at a time in an order that is driven by
1413 heuristics. Since code can be rewritten on-the-fly during allocation, this
1414 framework allows interesting allocators to be developed as extensions. It is
1415 not itself a production register allocator but is a potentially useful
1416 stand-alone mode for triaging bugs and as a performance baseline.
1417
1418* *Greedy* --- *The default allocator*. This is a highly tuned implementation of
1419 the *Basic* allocator that incorporates global live range splitting. This
1420 allocator works hard to minimize the cost of spill code.
1421
1422* *PBQP* --- A Partitioned Boolean Quadratic Programming (PBQP) based register
1423 allocator. This allocator works by constructing a PBQP problem representing
1424 the register allocation problem under consideration, solving this using a PBQP
1425 solver, and mapping the solution back to a register assignment.
1426
1427The type of register allocator used in ``llc`` can be chosen with the command
1428line option ``-regalloc=...``:
1429
1430.. code-block:: bash
1431
1432 $ llc -regalloc=linearscan file.bc -o ln.s
1433 $ llc -regalloc=fast file.bc -o fa.s
1434 $ llc -regalloc=pbqp file.bc -o pbqp.s
1435
1436.. _Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion:
1437
1438Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion
1439----------------------------
1440
1441Compact Unwind
1442
1443Throwing an exception requires *unwinding* out of a function. The information on
1444how to unwind a given function is traditionally expressed in DWARF unwind
1445(a.k.a. frame) info. But that format was originally developed for debuggers to
1446backtrace, and each Frame Description Entry (FDE) requires ~20-30 bytes per
1447function. There is also the cost of mapping from an address in a function to the
1448corresponding FDE at runtime. An alternative unwind encoding is called *compact
1449unwind* and requires just 4-bytes per function.
1450
1451The compact unwind encoding is a 32-bit value, which is encoded in an
1452architecture-specific way. It specifies which registers to restore and from
1453where, and how to unwind out of the function. When the linker creates a final
1454linked image, it will create a ``__TEXT,__unwind_info`` section. This section is
1455a small and fast way for the runtime to access unwind info for any given
1456function. If we emit compact unwind info for the function, that compact unwind
1457info will be encoded in the ``__TEXT,__unwind_info`` section. If we emit DWARF
1458unwind info, the ``__TEXT,__unwind_info`` section will contain the offset of the
1459FDE in the ``__TEXT,__eh_frame`` section in the final linked image.
1460
1461For X86, there are three modes for the compact unwind encoding:
1462
1463*Function with a Frame Pointer (``EBP`` or ``RBP``)*
1464 ``EBP/RBP``-based frame, where ``EBP/RBP`` is pushed onto the stack
1465 immediately after the return address, then ``ESP/RSP`` is moved to
1466 ``EBP/RBP``. Thus to unwind, ``ESP/RSP`` is restored with the current
1467 ``EBP/RBP`` value, then ``EBP/RBP`` is restored by popping the stack, and the
1468 return is done by popping the stack once more into the PC. All non-volatile
1469 registers that need to be restored must have been saved in a small range on
1470 the stack that starts ``EBP-4`` to ``EBP-1020`` (``RBP-8`` to
1471 ``RBP-1020``). The offset (divided by 4 in 32-bit mode and 8 in 64-bit mode)
1472 is encoded in bits 16-23 (mask: ``0x00FF0000``). The registers saved are
1473 encoded in bits 0-14 (mask: ``0x00007FFF``) as five 3-bit entries from the
1474 following table:
1475
1476 ============== ============= ===============
1477 Compact Number i386 Register x86-64 Register
1478 ============== ============= ===============
1479 1 ``EBX`` ``RBX``
1480 2 ``ECX`` ``R12``
1481 3 ``EDX`` ``R13``
1482 4 ``EDI`` ``R14``
1483 5 ``ESI`` ``R15``
1484 6 ``EBP`` ``RBP``
1485 ============== ============= ===============
1486
1487*Frameless with a Small Constant Stack Size (``EBP`` or ``RBP`` is not used as a frame pointer)*
1488 To return, a constant (encoded in the compact unwind encoding) is added to the
1489 ``ESP/RSP``. Then the return is done by popping the stack into the PC. All
1490 non-volatile registers that need to be restored must have been saved on the
1491 stack immediately after the return address. The stack size (divided by 4 in
1492 32-bit mode and 8 in 64-bit mode) is encoded in bits 16-23 (mask:
1493 ``0x00FF0000``). There is a maximum stack size of 1024 bytes in 32-bit mode
1494 and 2048 in 64-bit mode. The number of registers saved is encoded in bits 9-12
1495 (mask: ``0x00001C00``). Bits 0-9 (mask: ``0x000003FF``) contain which
1496 registers were saved and their order. (See the
1497 ``encodeCompactUnwindRegistersWithoutFrame()`` function in
1498 ``lib/Target/X86FrameLowering.cpp`` for the encoding algorithm.)
1499
1500*Frameless with a Large Constant Stack Size (``EBP`` or ``RBP`` is not used as a frame pointer)*
1501 This case is like the "Frameless with a Small Constant Stack Size" case, but
1502 the stack size is too large to encode in the compact unwind encoding. Instead
1503 it requires that the function contains "``subl $nnnnnn, %esp``" in its
1504 prolog. The compact encoding contains the offset to the ``$nnnnnn`` value in
1505 the function in bits 9-12 (mask: ``0x00001C00``).
1506
1507.. _Late Machine Code Optimizations:
1508
1509Late Machine Code Optimizations
1510-------------------------------
1511
1512.. note::
1513
1514 To Be Written
1515
1516.. _Code Emission:
1517
1518Code Emission
1519-------------
1520
1521The code emission step of code generation is responsible for lowering from the
1522code generator abstractions (like `MachineFunction`_, `MachineInstr`_, etc) down
1523to the abstractions used by the MC layer (`MCInst`_, `MCStreamer`_, etc). This
1524is done with a combination of several different classes: the (misnamed)
1525target-independent AsmPrinter class, target-specific subclasses of AsmPrinter
1526(such as SparcAsmPrinter), and the TargetLoweringObjectFile class.
1527
1528Since the MC layer works at the level of abstraction of object files, it doesn't
1529have a notion of functions, global variables etc. Instead, it thinks about
1530labels, directives, and instructions. A key class used at this time is the
1531MCStreamer class. This is an abstract API that is implemented in different ways
1532(e.g. to output a .s file, output an ELF .o file, etc) that is effectively an
1533"assembler API". MCStreamer has one method per directive, such as EmitLabel,
1534EmitSymbolAttribute, SwitchSection, etc, which directly correspond to assembly
1535level directives.
1536
1537If you are interested in implementing a code generator for a target, there are
1538three important things that you have to implement for your target:
1539
1540#. First, you need a subclass of AsmPrinter for your target. This class
1541 implements the general lowering process converting MachineFunction's into MC
1542 label constructs. The AsmPrinter base class provides a number of useful
1543 methods and routines, and also allows you to override the lowering process in
1544 some important ways. You should get much of the lowering for free if you are
1545 implementing an ELF, COFF, or MachO target, because the
1546 TargetLoweringObjectFile class implements much of the common logic.
1547
1548#. Second, you need to implement an instruction printer for your target. The
1549 instruction printer takes an `MCInst`_ and renders it to a raw_ostream as
1550 text. Most of this is automatically generated from the .td file (when you
1551 specify something like "``add $dst, $src1, $src2``" in the instructions), but
1552 you need to implement routines to print operands.
1553
1554#. Third, you need to implement code that lowers a `MachineInstr`_ to an MCInst,
1555 usually implemented in "<target>MCInstLower.cpp". This lowering process is
1556 often target specific, and is responsible for turning jump table entries,
1557 constant pool indices, global variable addresses, etc into MCLabels as
1558 appropriate. This translation layer is also responsible for expanding pseudo
1559 ops used by the code generator into the actual machine instructions they
1560 correspond to. The MCInsts that are generated by this are fed into the
1561 instruction printer or the encoder.
1562
1563Finally, at your choosing, you can also implement an subclass of MCCodeEmitter
1564which lowers MCInst's into machine code bytes and relocations. This is
1565important if you want to support direct .o file emission, or would like to
1566implement an assembler for your target.
1567
1568VLIW Packetizer
1569---------------
1570
1571In a Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) architecture, the compiler is responsible
1572for mapping instructions to functional-units available on the architecture. To
1573that end, the compiler creates groups of instructions called *packets* or
1574*bundles*. The VLIW packetizer in LLVM is a target-independent mechanism to
1575enable the packetization of machine instructions.
1576
1577Mapping from instructions to functional units
1578^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1579
1580Instructions in a VLIW target can typically be mapped to multiple functional
1581units. During the process of packetizing, the compiler must be able to reason
1582about whether an instruction can be added to a packet. This decision can be
1583complex since the compiler has to examine all possible mappings of instructions
1584to functional units. Therefore to alleviate compilation-time complexity, the
1585VLIW packetizer parses the instruction classes of a target and generates tables
1586at compiler build time. These tables can then be queried by the provided
1587machine-independent API to determine if an instruction can be accommodated in a
1588packet.
1589
1590How the packetization tables are generated and used
1591^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1592
1593The packetizer reads instruction classes from a target's itineraries and creates
1594a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) to represent the state of a packet. A DFA
1595consists of three major elements: inputs, states, and transitions. The set of
1596inputs for the generated DFA represents the instruction being added to a
1597packet. The states represent the possible consumption of functional units by
1598instructions in a packet. In the DFA, transitions from one state to another
1599occur on the addition of an instruction to an existing packet. If there is a
1600legal mapping of functional units to instructions, then the DFA contains a
1601corresponding transition. The absence of a transition indicates that a legal
1602mapping does not exist and that the instruction cannot be added to the packet.
1603
1604To generate tables for a VLIW target, add *Target*\ GenDFAPacketizer.inc as a
1605target to the Makefile in the target directory. The exported API provides three
1606functions: ``DFAPacketizer::clearResources()``,
1607``DFAPacketizer::reserveResources(MachineInstr *MI)``, and
1608``DFAPacketizer::canReserveResources(MachineInstr *MI)``. These functions allow
1609a target packetizer to add an instruction to an existing packet and to check
1610whether an instruction can be added to a packet. See
1611``llvm/CodeGen/DFAPacketizer.h`` for more information.
1612
1613Implementing a Native Assembler
1614===============================
1615
1616Though you're probably reading this because you want to write or maintain a
1617compiler backend, LLVM also fully supports building a native assemblers too.
1618We've tried hard to automate the generation of the assembler from the .td files
1619(in particular the instruction syntax and encodings), which means that a large
1620part of the manual and repetitive data entry can be factored and shared with the
1621compiler.
1622
1623Instruction Parsing
1624-------------------
1625
1626.. note::
1627
1628 To Be Written
1629
1630
1631Instruction Alias Processing
1632----------------------------
1633
1634Once the instruction is parsed, it enters the MatchInstructionImpl function.
1635The MatchInstructionImpl function performs alias processing and then does actual
1636matching.
1637
1638Alias processing is the phase that canonicalizes different lexical forms of the
1639same instructions down to one representation. There are several different kinds
1640of alias that are possible to implement and they are listed below in the order
1641that they are processed (which is in order from simplest/weakest to most
1642complex/powerful). Generally you want to use the first alias mechanism that
1643meets the needs of your instruction, because it will allow a more concise
1644description.
1645
1646Mnemonic Aliases
1647^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1648
1649The first phase of alias processing is simple instruction mnemonic remapping for
1650classes of instructions which are allowed with two different mnemonics. This
1651phase is a simple and unconditionally remapping from one input mnemonic to one
1652output mnemonic. It isn't possible for this form of alias to look at the
1653operands at all, so the remapping must apply for all forms of a given mnemonic.
1654Mnemonic aliases are defined simply, for example X86 has:
1655
1656::
1657
1658 def : MnemonicAlias<"cbw", "cbtw">;
1659 def : MnemonicAlias<"smovq", "movsq">;
1660 def : MnemonicAlias<"fldcww", "fldcw">;
1661 def : MnemonicAlias<"fucompi", "fucomip">;
1662 def : MnemonicAlias<"ud2a", "ud2">;
1663
1664... and many others. With a MnemonicAlias definition, the mnemonic is remapped
1665simply and directly. Though MnemonicAlias's can't look at any aspect of the
1666instruction (such as the operands) they can depend on global modes (the same
1667ones supported by the matcher), through a Requires clause:
1668
1669::
1670
1671 def : MnemonicAlias<"pushf", "pushfq">, Requires<[In64BitMode]>;
1672 def : MnemonicAlias<"pushf", "pushfl">, Requires<[In32BitMode]>;
1673
1674In this example, the mnemonic gets mapped into different a new one depending on
1675the current instruction set.
1676
1677Instruction Aliases
1678^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1679
1680The most general phase of alias processing occurs while matching is happening:
1681it provides new forms for the matcher to match along with a specific instruction
1682to generate. An instruction alias has two parts: the string to match and the
1683instruction to generate. For example:
1684
1685::
1686
1687 def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX16rr8W GR16:$dst, GR8 :$src)>;
1688 def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX16rm8W GR16:$dst, i8mem:$src)>;
1689 def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX32rr8 GR32:$dst, GR8 :$src)>;
1690 def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX32rr16 GR32:$dst, GR16 :$src)>;
1691 def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX64rr8 GR64:$dst, GR8 :$src)>;
1692 def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX64rr16 GR64:$dst, GR16 :$src)>;
1693 def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX64rr32 GR64:$dst, GR32 :$src)>;
1694
1695This shows a powerful example of the instruction aliases, matching the same
1696mnemonic in multiple different ways depending on what operands are present in
1697the assembly. The result of instruction aliases can include operands in a
1698different order than the destination instruction, and can use an input multiple
1699times, for example:
1700
1701::
1702
1703 def : InstAlias<"clrb $reg", (XOR8rr GR8 :$reg, GR8 :$reg)>;
1704 def : InstAlias<"clrw $reg", (XOR16rr GR16:$reg, GR16:$reg)>;
1705 def : InstAlias<"clrl $reg", (XOR32rr GR32:$reg, GR32:$reg)>;
1706 def : InstAlias<"clrq $reg", (XOR64rr GR64:$reg, GR64:$reg)>;
1707
1708This example also shows that tied operands are only listed once. In the X86
1709backend, XOR8rr has two input GR8's and one output GR8 (where an input is tied
1710to the output). InstAliases take a flattened operand list without duplicates
1711for tied operands. The result of an instruction alias can also use immediates
1712and fixed physical registers which are added as simple immediate operands in the
1713result, for example:
1714
1715::
1716
1717 // Fixed Immediate operand.
1718 def : InstAlias<"aad", (AAD8i8 10)>;
1719
1720 // Fixed register operand.
1721 def : InstAlias<"fcomi", (COM_FIr ST1)>;
1722
1723 // Simple alias.
1724 def : InstAlias<"fcomi $reg", (COM_FIr RST:$reg)>;
1725
1726Instruction aliases can also have a Requires clause to make them subtarget
1727specific.
1728
1729If the back-end supports it, the instruction printer can automatically emit the
1730alias rather than what's being aliased. It typically leads to better, more
1731readable code. If it's better to print out what's being aliased, then pass a '0'
1732as the third parameter to the InstAlias definition.
1733
1734Instruction Matching
1735--------------------
1736
1737.. note::
1738
1739 To Be Written
1740
1741.. _Implementations of the abstract target description interfaces:
1742.. _implement the target description:
1743
1744Target-specific Implementation Notes
1745====================================
1746
1747This section of the document explains features or design decisions that are
1748specific to the code generator for a particular target. First we start with a
1749table that summarizes what features are supported by each target.
1750
Dmitri Gribenkoe17d8582012-12-09 23:14:26 +00001751.. _target-feature-matrix:
1752
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001753Target Feature Matrix
1754---------------------
1755
1756Note that this table does not include the C backend or Cpp backends, since they
1757do not use the target independent code generator infrastructure. It also
1758doesn't list features that are not supported fully by any target yet. It
1759considers a feature to be supported if at least one subtarget supports it. A
1760feature being supported means that it is useful and works for most cases, it
1761does not indicate that there are zero known bugs in the implementation. Here is
1762the key:
1763
1764:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
1765:raw-html:`<tr>`
1766:raw-html:`<th>Unknown</th>`
Justin Holewinskic059d562013-01-11 18:37:54 +00001767:raw-html:`<th>Not Applicable</th>`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001768:raw-html:`<th>No support</th>`
1769:raw-html:`<th>Partial Support</th>`
1770:raw-html:`<th>Complete Support</th>`
1771:raw-html:`</tr>`
1772:raw-html:`<tr>`
1773:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td>`
Justin Holewinskic059d562013-01-11 18:37:54 +00001774:raw-html:`<td class="na"></td>`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001775:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td>`
1776:raw-html:`<td class="partial"></td>`
1777:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td>`
1778:raw-html:`</tr>`
1779:raw-html:`</table>`
1780
1781Here is the table:
1782
1783:raw-html:`<table width="689" border="1" cellspacing="0">`
1784:raw-html:`<tr><td></td>`
1785:raw-html:`<td colspan="13" align="center" style="background-color:#ffc">Target</td>`
1786:raw-html:`</tr>`
1787:raw-html:`<tr>`
1788:raw-html:`<th>Feature</th>`
1789:raw-html:`<th>ARM</th>`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001790:raw-html:`<th>Hexagon</th>`
1791:raw-html:`<th>MBlaze</th>`
1792:raw-html:`<th>MSP430</th>`
1793:raw-html:`<th>Mips</th>`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001794:raw-html:`<th>NVPTX</th>`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001795:raw-html:`<th>PowerPC</th>`
1796:raw-html:`<th>Sparc</th>`
Richard Sandiforda571a932013-05-08 14:23:43 +00001797:raw-html:`<th>SystemZ</th>`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001798:raw-html:`<th>X86</th>`
1799:raw-html:`<th>XCore</th>`
1800:raw-html:`</tr>`
1801
1802:raw-html:`<tr>`
1803:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_reliable">is generally reliable</a></td>`
1804:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001805:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
1806:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
1807:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
1808:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001809:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- NVPTX -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001810:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
1811:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
Richard Sandiforda571a932013-05-08 14:23:43 +00001812:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- SystemZ -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001813:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
Richard Osbornee0c34542013-05-05 14:09:55 +00001814:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001815:raw-html:`</tr>`
1816
1817:raw-html:`<tr>`
1818:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_asmparser">assembly parser</a></td>`
1819:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001820:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
1821:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
1822:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
1823:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001824:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- NVPTX -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001825:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
1826:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
Richard Sandiforda571a932013-05-08 14:23:43 +00001827:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- SystemZ -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001828:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
1829:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
1830:raw-html:`</tr>`
1831
1832:raw-html:`<tr>`
1833:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_disassembler">disassembler</a></td>`
1834:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001835:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
1836:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
1837:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
1838:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001839:raw-html:`<td class="na"></td> <!-- NVPTX -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001840:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
Richard Sandifordc3b20c22013-05-14 10:17:52 +00001841:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- SystemZ -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001842:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
1843:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
Richard Osbornee0c34542013-05-05 14:09:55 +00001844:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001845:raw-html:`</tr>`
1846
1847:raw-html:`<tr>`
1848:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_inlineasm">inline asm</a></td>`
1849:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001850:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
1851:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
1852:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
1853:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001854:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- NVPTX -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001855:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
1856:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
Richard Sandiforda571a932013-05-08 14:23:43 +00001857:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- SystemZ -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001858:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
Richard Osbornee0c34542013-05-05 14:09:55 +00001859:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001860:raw-html:`</tr>`
1861
1862:raw-html:`<tr>`
1863:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_jit">jit</a></td>`
1864:raw-html:`<td class="partial"><a href="#feat_jit_arm">*</a></td> <!-- ARM -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001865:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
1866:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
1867:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
1868:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001869:raw-html:`<td class="na"></td> <!-- NVPTX -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001870:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
1871:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
Richard Sandiforda571a932013-05-08 14:23:43 +00001872:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- SystemZ -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001873:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
Richard Osbornee0c34542013-05-05 14:09:55 +00001874:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001875:raw-html:`</tr>`
1876
1877:raw-html:`<tr>`
1878:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_objectwrite">.o&nbsp;file writing</a></td>`
1879:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001880:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
1881:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
1882:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
1883:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001884:raw-html:`<td class="na"></td> <!-- NVPTX -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001885:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
1886:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
Richard Sandiforda571a932013-05-08 14:23:43 +00001887:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- SystemZ -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001888:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
1889:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
1890:raw-html:`</tr>`
1891
1892:raw-html:`<tr>`
1893:raw-html:`<td><a hr:raw-html:`ef="#feat_tailcall">tail calls</a></td>`
1894:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001895:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
1896:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
1897:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
1898:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001899:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- NVPTX -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001900:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
1901:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
Richard Sandiforda571a932013-05-08 14:23:43 +00001902:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- SystemZ -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001903:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
Richard Osbornee0c34542013-05-05 14:09:55 +00001904:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001905:raw-html:`</tr>`
1906
1907:raw-html:`<tr>`
1908:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_segstacks">segmented stacks</a></td>`
1909:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001910:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
1911:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
1912:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
1913:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00001914:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- NVPTX -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001915:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
1916:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
Richard Sandiforda571a932013-05-08 14:23:43 +00001917:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- SystemZ -->`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00001918:raw-html:`<td class="partial"><a href="#feat_segstacks_x86">*</a></td> <!-- X86 -->`
1919:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
1920:raw-html:`</tr>`
1921
1922:raw-html:`</table>`
1923
1924.. _feat_reliable:
1925
1926Is Generally Reliable
1927^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1928
1929This box indicates whether the target is considered to be production quality.
1930This indicates that the target has been used as a static compiler to compile
1931large amounts of code by a variety of different people and is in continuous use.
1932
1933.. _feat_asmparser:
1934
1935Assembly Parser
1936^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1937
1938This box indicates whether the target supports parsing target specific .s files
1939by implementing the MCAsmParser interface. This is required for llvm-mc to be
1940able to act as a native assembler and is required for inline assembly support in
1941the native .o file writer.
1942
1943.. _feat_disassembler:
1944
1945Disassembler
1946^^^^^^^^^^^^
1947
1948This box indicates whether the target supports the MCDisassembler API for
1949disassembling machine opcode bytes into MCInst's.
1950
1951.. _feat_inlineasm:
1952
1953Inline Asm
1954^^^^^^^^^^
1955
1956This box indicates whether the target supports most popular inline assembly
1957constraints and modifiers.
1958
1959.. _feat_jit:
1960
1961JIT Support
1962^^^^^^^^^^^
1963
1964This box indicates whether the target supports the JIT compiler through the
1965ExecutionEngine interface.
1966
1967.. _feat_jit_arm:
1968
1969The ARM backend has basic support for integer code in ARM codegen mode, but
1970lacks NEON and full Thumb support.
1971
1972.. _feat_objectwrite:
1973
1974.o File Writing
1975^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1976
1977This box indicates whether the target supports writing .o files (e.g. MachO,
1978ELF, and/or COFF) files directly from the target. Note that the target also
1979must include an assembly parser and general inline assembly support for full
1980inline assembly support in the .o writer.
1981
1982Targets that don't support this feature can obviously still write out .o files,
1983they just rely on having an external assembler to translate from a .s file to a
1984.o file (as is the case for many C compilers).
1985
1986.. _feat_tailcall:
1987
1988Tail Calls
1989^^^^^^^^^^
1990
1991This box indicates whether the target supports guaranteed tail calls. These are
1992calls marked "`tail <LangRef.html#i_call>`_" and use the fastcc calling
1993convention. Please see the `tail call section more more details`_.
1994
1995.. _feat_segstacks:
1996
1997Segmented Stacks
1998^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1999
2000This box indicates whether the target supports segmented stacks. This replaces
2001the traditional large C stack with many linked segments. It is compatible with
2002the `gcc implementation <http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/SplitStacks>`_ used by the Go
2003front end.
2004
2005.. _feat_segstacks_x86:
2006
2007Basic support exists on the X86 backend. Currently vararg doesn't work and the
2008object files are not marked the way the gold linker expects, but simple Go
2009programs can be built by dragonegg.
2010
2011.. _tail call section more more details:
2012
2013Tail call optimization
2014----------------------
2015
2016Tail call optimization, callee reusing the stack of the caller, is currently
2017supported on x86/x86-64 and PowerPC. It is performed if:
2018
Duncan Sandsdc7f1742012-11-16 12:36:39 +00002019* Caller and callee have the calling convention ``fastcc``, ``cc 10`` (GHC
2020 calling convention) or ``cc 11`` (HiPE calling convention).
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00002021
2022* The call is a tail call - in tail position (ret immediately follows call and
2023 ret uses value of call or is void).
2024
2025* Option ``-tailcallopt`` is enabled.
2026
2027* Platform specific constraints are met.
2028
2029x86/x86-64 constraints:
2030
2031* No variable argument lists are used.
2032
2033* On x86-64 when generating GOT/PIC code only module-local calls (visibility =
2034 hidden or protected) are supported.
2035
2036PowerPC constraints:
2037
2038* No variable argument lists are used.
2039
2040* No byval parameters are used.
2041
2042* On ppc32/64 GOT/PIC only module-local calls (visibility = hidden or protected)
2043 are supported.
2044
2045Example:
2046
2047Call as ``llc -tailcallopt test.ll``.
2048
2049.. code-block:: llvm
2050
2051 declare fastcc i32 @tailcallee(i32 inreg %a1, i32 inreg %a2, i32 %a3, i32 %a4)
2052
2053 define fastcc i32 @tailcaller(i32 %in1, i32 %in2) {
2054 %l1 = add i32 %in1, %in2
2055 %tmp = tail call fastcc i32 @tailcallee(i32 %in1 inreg, i32 %in2 inreg, i32 %in1, i32 %l1)
2056 ret i32 %tmp
2057 }
2058
2059Implications of ``-tailcallopt``:
2060
2061To support tail call optimization in situations where the callee has more
2062arguments than the caller a 'callee pops arguments' convention is used. This
2063currently causes each ``fastcc`` call that is not tail call optimized (because
2064one or more of above constraints are not met) to be followed by a readjustment
2065of the stack. So performance might be worse in such cases.
2066
2067Sibling call optimization
2068-------------------------
2069
2070Sibling call optimization is a restricted form of tail call optimization.
2071Unlike tail call optimization described in the previous section, it can be
2072performed automatically on any tail calls when ``-tailcallopt`` option is not
2073specified.
2074
2075Sibling call optimization is currently performed on x86/x86-64 when the
2076following constraints are met:
2077
2078* Caller and callee have the same calling convention. It can be either ``c`` or
2079 ``fastcc``.
2080
2081* The call is a tail call - in tail position (ret immediately follows call and
2082 ret uses value of call or is void).
2083
2084* Caller and callee have matching return type or the callee result is not used.
2085
2086* If any of the callee arguments are being passed in stack, they must be
2087 available in caller's own incoming argument stack and the frame offsets must
2088 be the same.
2089
2090Example:
2091
2092.. code-block:: llvm
2093
2094 declare i32 @bar(i32, i32)
2095
2096 define i32 @foo(i32 %a, i32 %b, i32 %c) {
2097 entry:
2098 %0 = tail call i32 @bar(i32 %a, i32 %b)
2099 ret i32 %0
2100 }
2101
2102The X86 backend
2103---------------
2104
2105The X86 code generator lives in the ``lib/Target/X86`` directory. This code
2106generator is capable of targeting a variety of x86-32 and x86-64 processors, and
2107includes support for ISA extensions such as MMX and SSE.
2108
2109X86 Target Triples supported
2110^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2111
2112The following are the known target triples that are supported by the X86
2113backend. This is not an exhaustive list, and it would be useful to add those
2114that people test.
2115
2116* **i686-pc-linux-gnu** --- Linux
2117
2118* **i386-unknown-freebsd5.3** --- FreeBSD 5.3
2119
2120* **i686-pc-cygwin** --- Cygwin on Win32
2121
2122* **i686-pc-mingw32** --- MingW on Win32
2123
2124* **i386-pc-mingw32msvc** --- MingW crosscompiler on Linux
2125
2126* **i686-apple-darwin*** --- Apple Darwin on X86
2127
2128* **x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu** --- Linux
2129
2130X86 Calling Conventions supported
2131^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2132
2133The following target-specific calling conventions are known to backend:
2134
2135* **x86_StdCall** --- stdcall calling convention seen on Microsoft Windows
2136 platform (CC ID = 64).
2137
2138* **x86_FastCall** --- fastcall calling convention seen on Microsoft Windows
2139 platform (CC ID = 65).
2140
2141* **x86_ThisCall** --- Similar to X86_StdCall. Passes first argument in ECX,
2142 others via stack. Callee is responsible for stack cleaning. This convention is
2143 used by MSVC by default for methods in its ABI (CC ID = 70).
2144
2145.. _X86 addressing mode:
2146
2147Representing X86 addressing modes in MachineInstrs
2148^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2149
2150The x86 has a very flexible way of accessing memory. It is capable of forming
2151memory addresses of the following expression directly in integer instructions
2152(which use ModR/M addressing):
2153
2154::
2155
2156 SegmentReg: Base + [1,2,4,8] * IndexReg + Disp32
2157
2158In order to represent this, LLVM tracks no less than 5 operands for each memory
2159operand of this form. This means that the "load" form of '``mov``' has the
2160following ``MachineOperand``\s in this order:
2161
2162::
2163
2164 Index: 0 | 1 2 3 4 5
2165 Meaning: DestReg, | BaseReg, Scale, IndexReg, Displacement Segment
2166 OperandTy: VirtReg, | VirtReg, UnsImm, VirtReg, SignExtImm PhysReg
2167
2168Stores, and all other instructions, treat the four memory operands in the same
2169way and in the same order. If the segment register is unspecified (regno = 0),
2170then no segment override is generated. "Lea" operations do not have a segment
2171register specified, so they only have 4 operands for their memory reference.
2172
2173X86 address spaces supported
2174^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2175
2176x86 has a feature which provides the ability to perform loads and stores to
2177different address spaces via the x86 segment registers. A segment override
2178prefix byte on an instruction causes the instruction's memory access to go to
2179the specified segment. LLVM address space 0 is the default address space, which
2180includes the stack, and any unqualified memory accesses in a program. Address
2181spaces 1-255 are currently reserved for user-defined code. The GS-segment is
2182represented by address space 256, while the FS-segment is represented by address
2183space 257. Other x86 segments have yet to be allocated address space
2184numbers.
2185
2186While these address spaces may seem similar to TLS via the ``thread_local``
2187keyword, and often use the same underlying hardware, there are some fundamental
2188differences.
2189
2190The ``thread_local`` keyword applies to global variables and specifies that they
2191are to be allocated in thread-local memory. There are no type qualifiers
2192involved, and these variables can be pointed to with normal pointers and
2193accessed with normal loads and stores. The ``thread_local`` keyword is
2194target-independent at the LLVM IR level (though LLVM doesn't yet have
2195implementations of it for some configurations)
2196
2197Special address spaces, in contrast, apply to static types. Every load and store
2198has a particular address space in its address operand type, and this is what
2199determines which address space is accessed. LLVM ignores these special address
2200space qualifiers on global variables, and does not provide a way to directly
2201allocate storage in them. At the LLVM IR level, the behavior of these special
2202address spaces depends in part on the underlying OS or runtime environment, and
2203they are specific to x86 (and LLVM doesn't yet handle them correctly in some
2204cases).
2205
2206Some operating systems and runtime environments use (or may in the future use)
2207the FS/GS-segment registers for various low-level purposes, so care should be
2208taken when considering them.
2209
2210Instruction naming
2211^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2212
2213An instruction name consists of the base name, a default operand size, and a a
2214character per operand with an optional special size. For example:
2215
2216::
2217
2218 ADD8rr -> add, 8-bit register, 8-bit register
2219 IMUL16rmi -> imul, 16-bit register, 16-bit memory, 16-bit immediate
2220 IMUL16rmi8 -> imul, 16-bit register, 16-bit memory, 8-bit immediate
2221 MOVSX32rm16 -> movsx, 32-bit register, 16-bit memory
2222
2223The PowerPC backend
2224-------------------
2225
2226The PowerPC code generator lives in the lib/Target/PowerPC directory. The code
2227generation is retargetable to several variations or *subtargets* of the PowerPC
2228ISA; including ppc32, ppc64 and altivec.
2229
2230LLVM PowerPC ABI
2231^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2232
2233LLVM follows the AIX PowerPC ABI, with two deviations. LLVM uses a PC relative
2234(PIC) or static addressing for accessing global values, so no TOC (r2) is
2235used. Second, r31 is used as a frame pointer to allow dynamic growth of a stack
2236frame. LLVM takes advantage of having no TOC to provide space to save the frame
2237pointer in the PowerPC linkage area of the caller frame. Other details of
2238PowerPC ABI can be found at `PowerPC ABI
2239<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/LowLevelABI/Articles/32bitPowerPC.html>`_\
2240. Note: This link describes the 32 bit ABI. The 64 bit ABI is similar except
2241space for GPRs are 8 bytes wide (not 4) and r13 is reserved for system use.
2242
2243Frame Layout
2244^^^^^^^^^^^^
2245
2246The size of a PowerPC frame is usually fixed for the duration of a function's
2247invocation. Since the frame is fixed size, all references into the frame can be
2248accessed via fixed offsets from the stack pointer. The exception to this is
2249when dynamic alloca or variable sized arrays are present, then a base pointer
2250(r31) is used as a proxy for the stack pointer and stack pointer is free to grow
2251or shrink. A base pointer is also used if llvm-gcc is not passed the
2252-fomit-frame-pointer flag. The stack pointer is always aligned to 16 bytes, so
2253that space allocated for altivec vectors will be properly aligned.
2254
2255An invocation frame is laid out as follows (low memory at top):
2256
2257:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
2258:raw-html:`<tr>`
2259:raw-html:`<td>Linkage<br><br></td>`
2260:raw-html:`</tr>`
2261:raw-html:`<tr>`
2262:raw-html:`<td>Parameter area<br><br></td>`
2263:raw-html:`</tr>`
2264:raw-html:`<tr>`
2265:raw-html:`<td>Dynamic area<br><br></td>`
2266:raw-html:`</tr>`
2267:raw-html:`<tr>`
2268:raw-html:`<td>Locals area<br><br></td>`
2269:raw-html:`</tr>`
2270:raw-html:`<tr>`
2271:raw-html:`<td>Saved registers area<br><br></td>`
2272:raw-html:`</tr>`
2273:raw-html:`<tr style="border-style: none hidden none hidden;">`
2274:raw-html:`<td><br></td>`
2275:raw-html:`</tr>`
2276:raw-html:`<tr>`
2277:raw-html:`<td>Previous Frame<br><br></td>`
2278:raw-html:`</tr>`
2279:raw-html:`</table>`
2280
2281The *linkage* area is used by a callee to save special registers prior to
2282allocating its own frame. Only three entries are relevant to LLVM. The first
2283entry is the previous stack pointer (sp), aka link. This allows probing tools
2284like gdb or exception handlers to quickly scan the frames in the stack. A
2285function epilog can also use the link to pop the frame from the stack. The
2286third entry in the linkage area is used to save the return address from the lr
2287register. Finally, as mentioned above, the last entry is used to save the
2288previous frame pointer (r31.) The entries in the linkage area are the size of a
2289GPR, thus the linkage area is 24 bytes long in 32 bit mode and 48 bytes in 64
2290bit mode.
2291
229232 bit linkage area:
2293
2294:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
2295:raw-html:`<tr>`
2296:raw-html:`<td>0</td>`
2297:raw-html:`<td>Saved SP (r1)</td>`
2298:raw-html:`</tr>`
2299:raw-html:`<tr>`
2300:raw-html:`<td>4</td>`
2301:raw-html:`<td>Saved CR</td>`
2302:raw-html:`</tr>`
2303:raw-html:`<tr>`
2304:raw-html:`<td>8</td>`
2305:raw-html:`<td>Saved LR</td>`
2306:raw-html:`</tr>`
2307:raw-html:`<tr>`
2308:raw-html:`<td>12</td>`
2309:raw-html:`<td>Reserved</td>`
2310:raw-html:`</tr>`
2311:raw-html:`<tr>`
2312:raw-html:`<td>16</td>`
2313:raw-html:`<td>Reserved</td>`
2314:raw-html:`</tr>`
2315:raw-html:`<tr>`
2316:raw-html:`<td>20</td>`
2317:raw-html:`<td>Saved FP (r31)</td>`
2318:raw-html:`</tr>`
2319:raw-html:`</table>`
2320
232164 bit linkage area:
2322
2323:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
2324:raw-html:`<tr>`
2325:raw-html:`<td>0</td>`
2326:raw-html:`<td>Saved SP (r1)</td>`
2327:raw-html:`</tr>`
2328:raw-html:`<tr>`
2329:raw-html:`<td>8</td>`
2330:raw-html:`<td>Saved CR</td>`
2331:raw-html:`</tr>`
2332:raw-html:`<tr>`
2333:raw-html:`<td>16</td>`
2334:raw-html:`<td>Saved LR</td>`
2335:raw-html:`</tr>`
2336:raw-html:`<tr>`
2337:raw-html:`<td>24</td>`
2338:raw-html:`<td>Reserved</td>`
2339:raw-html:`</tr>`
2340:raw-html:`<tr>`
2341:raw-html:`<td>32</td>`
2342:raw-html:`<td>Reserved</td>`
2343:raw-html:`</tr>`
2344:raw-html:`<tr>`
2345:raw-html:`<td>40</td>`
2346:raw-html:`<td>Saved FP (r31)</td>`
2347:raw-html:`</tr>`
2348:raw-html:`</table>`
2349
2350The *parameter area* is used to store arguments being passed to a callee
2351function. Following the PowerPC ABI, the first few arguments are actually
2352passed in registers, with the space in the parameter area unused. However, if
2353there are not enough registers or the callee is a thunk or vararg function,
2354these register arguments can be spilled into the parameter area. Thus, the
2355parameter area must be large enough to store all the parameters for the largest
2356call sequence made by the caller. The size must also be minimally large enough
2357to spill registers r3-r10. This allows callees blind to the call signature,
2358such as thunks and vararg functions, enough space to cache the argument
2359registers. Therefore, the parameter area is minimally 32 bytes (64 bytes in 64
2360bit mode.) Also note that since the parameter area is a fixed offset from the
2361top of the frame, that a callee can access its spilt arguments using fixed
2362offsets from the stack pointer (or base pointer.)
2363
2364Combining the information about the linkage, parameter areas and alignment. A
2365stack frame is minimally 64 bytes in 32 bit mode and 128 bytes in 64 bit mode.
2366
2367The *dynamic area* starts out as size zero. If a function uses dynamic alloca
2368then space is added to the stack, the linkage and parameter areas are shifted to
2369top of stack, and the new space is available immediately below the linkage and
2370parameter areas. The cost of shifting the linkage and parameter areas is minor
2371since only the link value needs to be copied. The link value can be easily
2372fetched by adding the original frame size to the base pointer. Note that
2373allocations in the dynamic space need to observe 16 byte alignment.
2374
2375The *locals area* is where the llvm compiler reserves space for local variables.
2376
2377The *saved registers area* is where the llvm compiler spills callee saved
2378registers on entry to the callee.
2379
2380Prolog/Epilog
2381^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2382
2383The llvm prolog and epilog are the same as described in the PowerPC ABI, with
2384the following exceptions. Callee saved registers are spilled after the frame is
2385created. This allows the llvm epilog/prolog support to be common with other
2386targets. The base pointer callee saved register r31 is saved in the TOC slot of
2387linkage area. This simplifies allocation of space for the base pointer and
2388makes it convenient to locate programatically and during debugging.
2389
2390Dynamic Allocation
2391^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2392
2393.. note::
2394
2395 TODO - More to come.
2396
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00002397The NVPTX backend
2398-----------------
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00002399
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00002400The NVPTX code generator under lib/Target/NVPTX is an open-source version of
2401the NVIDIA NVPTX code generator for LLVM. It is contributed by NVIDIA and is
2402a port of the code generator used in the CUDA compiler (nvcc). It targets the
2403PTX 3.0/3.1 ISA and can target any compute capability greater than or equal to
24042.0 (Fermi).
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00002405
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00002406This target is of production quality and should be completely compatible with
2407the official NVIDIA toolchain.
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00002408
2409Code Generator Options:
2410
2411:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
2412:raw-html:`<tr>`
2413:raw-html:`<th>Option</th>`
2414:raw-html:`<th>Description</th>`
2415:raw-html:`</tr>`
2416:raw-html:`<tr>`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00002417:raw-html:`<td>sm_20</td>`
2418:raw-html:`<td align="left">Set shader model/compute capability to 2.0</td>`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00002419:raw-html:`</tr>`
2420:raw-html:`<tr>`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00002421:raw-html:`<td>sm_21</td>`
2422:raw-html:`<td align="left">Set shader model/compute capability to 2.1</td>`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00002423:raw-html:`</tr>`
2424:raw-html:`<tr>`
Justin Holewinski9c0d0f52013-01-11 18:47:10 +00002425:raw-html:`<td>sm_30</td>`
2426:raw-html:`<td align="left">Set shader model/compute capability to 3.0</td>`
2427:raw-html:`</tr>`
2428:raw-html:`<tr>`
2429:raw-html:`<td>sm_35</td>`
2430:raw-html:`<td align="left">Set shader model/compute capability to 3.5</td>`
2431:raw-html:`</tr>`
2432:raw-html:`<tr>`
2433:raw-html:`<td>ptx30</td>`
2434:raw-html:`<td align="left">Target PTX 3.0</td>`
2435:raw-html:`</tr>`
2436:raw-html:`<tr>`
2437:raw-html:`<td>ptx31</td>`
2438:raw-html:`<td align="left">Target PTX 3.1</td>`
Bill Wendling31ce7bf2012-08-02 08:49:53 +00002439:raw-html:`</tr>`
2440:raw-html:`</table>`
2441