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 <HEAD>
 <TITLE>GL Dispatch in Mesa</TITLE>
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 <BODY>
 <H1>GL Dispatch in Mesa</H1>

 <p>Several factors combine to make efficient dispatch of OpenGL functions
 fairly complicated.  This document attempts to explain some of the issues
 and introduce the reader to Mesa's implementation.  Readers already familiar
 with the issues around GL dispatch can safely skip ahead to the <A
 HREF="#overview">overview of Mesa's implementation</A>.</p>

 <H2>1. Complexity of GL Dispatch</H2>

 <p>Every GL application has at least one object called a GL <em>context</em>.
 This object, which is an implicit parameter to ever GL function, stores all
 of the GL related state for the application.  Every texture, every buffer
 object, every enable, and much, much more is stored in the context.  Since
 an application can have more than one context, the context to be used is
 selected by a window-system dependent function such as
 <tt>glXMakeContextCurrent</tt>.</p>

 <p>In environments that implement OpenGL with X-Windows using GLX, every GL
 function, including the pointers returned by <tt>glXGetProcAddress</tt>, are
 <em>context independent</em>.  This means that no matter what context is
 currently active, the same <tt>glVertex3fv</tt> function is used.</p>

 <p>This creates the first bit of dispatch complexity.  An application can
 have two GL contexts.  One context is a direct rendering context where
 function calls are routed directly to a driver loaded within the
 application's address space.  The other context is an indirect rendering
 context where function calls are converted to GLX protocol and sent to a
 server.  The same <tt>glVertex3fv</tt> has to do the right thing depending
 on which context is current.</p>

 <p>Highly optimized drivers or GLX protocol implementations may want to
 change the behavior of GL functions depending on current state.  For
 example, <tt>glFogCoordf</tt> may operate differently depending on whether
 or not fog is enabled.</p>

 <p>In multi-threaded environments, it is possible for each thread to have a
 differnt GL context current.  This means that poor old <tt>glVertex3fv</tt>
 has to know which GL context is current in the thread where it is being
 called.</p>

 <A NAME="overview"/>
 <H2>2. Overview of Mesa's Implementation</H2>

 <p>Mesa uses two per-thread pointers.  The first pointer stores the address
 of the context current in the thread, and the second pointer stores the
 address of the <em>dispatch table</em> associated with that context.  The
 dispatch table stores pointers to functions that actually implement
 specific GL functions.  Each time a new context is made current in a thread,
 these pointers a updated.</p>

 <p>The implementation of functions such as <tt>glVertex3fv</tt> becomes
 conceptually simple:</p>

 <ul>
 <li>Fetch the current dispatch table pointer.</li>
 <li>Fetch the pointer to the real <tt>glVertex3fv</tt> function from the
 table.</li>
 <li>Call the real function.</li>
 </ul>

 <p>This can be implemented in just a few lines of C code.  The file
 <tt>src/mesa/glapi/glapitemp.h</tt> contains code very similar to this.</p>

 <blockquote>
 <table border="1">
 <tr><td><pre>
 void glVertex3f(GLfloat x, GLfloat y, GLfloat z)
 {
     const struct _glapi_table * const dispatch = GET_DISPATCH();

     (*dispatch-&gt;Vertex3f)(x, y, z);
 }</pre></td></tr>
 <tr><td>Sample dispatch function</td></tr></table>
 </blockquote>

 <p>The problem with this simple implementation is the large amount of
 overhead that it adds to every GL function call.</p>

 <p>In a multithreaded environment, a niave implementation of
 <tt>GET_DISPATCH</tt> involves a call to <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> or a
 similar function.  Mesa provides a wrapper function called
 <tt>_glapi_get_dispatch</tt> that is used by default.</p>

 <H2>3. Optimizations</H2>

 <p>A number of optimizations have been made over the years to diminish the
 performance hit imposed by GL dispatch.  This section describes these
 optimizations.  The benefits of each optimization and the situations where
 each can or cannot be used are listed.</p>

 <H3>3.1. Dual dispatch table pointers</H3>

 <p>The vast majority of OpenGL applications use the API in a single threaded
 manner.  That is, the application has only one thread that makes calls into
 the GL.  In these cases, not only do the calls to
 <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> hurt performance, but they are completely
 unnecessary!  It is possible to detect this common case and avoid these
 calls.</p>

 <p>Each time a new dispatch table is set, Mesa examines and records the ID
 of the executing thread.  If the same thread ID is always seen, Mesa knows
 that the application is, from OpenGL's point of view, single threaded.</p>

 <p>As long as an application is single threaded, Mesa stores a pointer to
 the dispatch table in a global variable called <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt>.
 The pointer is also stored in a per-thread location via
 <tt>pthread_setspecific</tt>.  When Mesa detects that an application has
 become multithreaded, <tt>NULL</tt> is stored in <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt>.</p>

 <p>Using this simple mechanism the dispatch functions can detect the
 multithreaded case by comparing <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> to <tt>NULL</tt>.
 The resulting implementation of <tt>GET_DISPATCH</tt> is slightly more
 complex, but it avoids the expensive <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> call in
 the common case.</p>

 <blockquote>
 <table border="1">
 <tr><td><pre>
 #define GET_DISPATCH() \
     (_glapi_Dispatch != NULL) \
         ? _glapi_Dispatch : pthread_getspecific(&_glapi_Dispatch_key)
 </pre></td></tr>
 <tr><td>Improved <tt>GET_DISPATCH</tt> Implementation</td></tr></table>
 </blockquote>

 <H3>3.2. ELF TLS</H3>

 <p>Starting with the 2.4.20 Linux kernel, each thread is allocated an area
 of per-thread, global storage.  Variables can be put in this area using some
 extensions to GCC.  By storing the dispatch table pointer in this area, the
 expensive call to <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> and the test of
 <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> can be avoided.</p>

 <p>The dispatch table pointer is stored in a new variable called
 <tt>_glapi_tls_Dispatch</tt>.  A new variable name is used so that a single
 libGL can implement both interfaces.  This allows the libGL to operate with
 direct rendering drivers that use either interface.  Once the pointer is
 properly declared, <tt>GET_DISPACH</tt> becomes a simple variable
 reference.</p>

 <blockquote>
 <table border="1">
 <tr><td><pre>
 extern __thread struct _glapi_table *_glapi_tls_Dispatch
     __attribute__((tls_model("initial-exec")));

 #define GET_DISPATCH() _glapi_tls_Dispatch
 </pre></td></tr>
 <tr><td>TLS <tt>GET_DISPATCH</tt> Implementation</td></tr></table>
 </blockquote>

 <p>Use of this path is controlled by the preprocessor define
 <tt>GLX_USE_TLS</tt>.  Any platform capable of using TLS should use this as
 the default dispatch method.</p>

 <H3>3.3. Assembly Language Dispatch Stubs</H3>

 <p>Many platforms has difficulty properly optimizing the tail-call in the
 dispatch stubs.  Platforms like x86 that pass parameters on the stack seem
 to have even more difficulty optimizing these routines.  All of the dispatch
 routines are very short, and it is trivial to create optimal assembly
 language versions.  The amount of optimization provided by using assembly
 stubs varies from platform to platform and application to application.
 However, by using the assembly stubs, many platforms can use an additional
 space optimization (see <A HREF="#fixedsize">below</A>).</p>

 <p>The biggest hurdle to creating assembly stubs is handling the various
 ways that the dispatch table pointer can be accessed.  There are four
 different methods that can be used:</p>

 <ol>
 <li>Using <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> directly in builds for non-multithreaded
 environments.</li>
 <li>Using <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> and <tt>_glapi_get_dispatch</tt> in
 multithreaded environments.</li>
 <li>Using <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> and <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> in
 multithreaded environments.</li>
 <li>Using <tt>_glapi_tls_Dispatch</tt> directly in TLS enabled
 multithreaded environments.</li>
 </ol>

 <p>People wishing to implement assembly stubs for new platforms should focus
 on #4 if the new platform supports TLS.  Otherwise, implement #2 followed by
 #3.  Environments that do not support multithreading are uncommon and not
 terribly relevant.</p>

 <p>Selection of the dispatch table pointer access method is controlled by a
 few preprocessor defines.</p>

 <ul>
 <li>If <tt>GLX_USE_TLS</tt> is defined, method #4 is used.</li>
 <li>If <tt>PTHREADS</tt> is defined, method #3 is used.</li>
 <li>If <tt>WIN32_THREADS</tt> is defined, method #2 is used.</li>
 <li>If none of the preceeding are defined, method #1 is used.</li>
 </ul>

 <p>Two different techniques are used to handle the various different cases.
 On x86 and SPARC, a macro called <tt>GL_STUB</tt> is used.  In the preamble
 of the assembly source file different implementations of the macro are
 selected based on the defined preprocessor variables.  The assmebly code
 then consists of a series of invocations of the macros such as:

 <blockquote>
 <table border="1">
 <tr><td><pre>
 GL_STUB(Color3fv, _gloffset_Color3fv)
 </pre></td></tr>
 <tr><td>SPARC Assembly Implementation of <tt>glColor3fv</tt></td></tr></table>
 </blockquote>

 <p>The benefit of this technique is that changes to the calling pattern
 (i.e., addition of a new dispatch table pointer access method) require fewer
 changed lines in the assembly code.</p>

 <p>However, this technique can only be used on platforms where the function
 implementation does not change based on the parameters passed to the
 function.  For example, since x86 passes all parameters on the stack, no
 additional code is needed to save and restore function parameters around a
 call to <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt>.  Since x86-64 passes parameters in
 registers, varying amounts of code needs to be inserted around the call to
 <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> to save and restore the GL function's
 parameters.</p>

 <p>The other technique, used by platforms like x86-64 that cannot use the
 first technique, is to insert <tt>#ifdef</tt> within the assembly
 implementation of each function.  This makes the assembly file considerably
 larger (e.g., 29,332 lines for <tt>glapi_x86-64.S</tt> versus 1,155 lines for
 <tt>glapi_x86.S</tt>) and causes simple changes to the function
 implementation to generate many lines of diffs.  Since the assmebly files
 are typically generated by scripts (see <A HREF="#autogen">below</A>), this
 isn't a significant problem.</p>

 <p>Once a new assembly file is created, it must be inserted in the build
 system.  There are two steps to this.  The file must first be added to
 <tt>src/mesa/sources</tt>.  That gets the file built and linked.  The second
 step is to add the correct <tt>#ifdef</tt> magic to
 <tt>src/mesa/glapi/glapi_dispatch.c</tt> to prevent the C version of the
 dispatch functions from being built.</p>

 <A NAME="fixedsize"/>
 <H3>3.4. Fixed-Length Dispatch Stubs</H3>

 <p>To implement <tt>glXGetProcAddress</tt>, Mesa stores a table that
 associates function names with pointers to those functions.  This table is
 stored in <tt>src/mesa/glapi/glprocs.h</tt>.  For different reasons on
 different platforms, storing all of those pointers is inefficient.  On most
 platforms, including all known platforms that support TLS, we can avoid this
 added overhead.</p>

 <p>If the assembly stubs are all the same size, the pointer need not be
 stored for every function.  The location of the function can instead be
 calculated by multiplying the size of the dispatch stub by the offset of the
 function in the table.  This value is then added to the address of the first
 dispatch stub.</p>

 <p>This path is activated by adding the correct <tt>#ifdef</tt> magic to
 <tt>src/mesa/glapi/glapi.c</tt> just before <tt>glprocs.h</tt> is
 included.</p>

 <A NAME="autogen"/>
 <H2>4. Automatic Generation of Dispatch Stubs</H2>

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	<HTML>
	<HEAD>
	<TITLE>GL Dispatch in Mesa</TITLE>
	<LINK REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="mesa.css">
	</HEAD>

	<BODY>
	<H1>GL Dispatch in Mesa</H1>

	<p>Several factors combine to make efficient dispatch of OpenGL functions
	fairly complicated. This document attempts to explain some of the issues
	and introduce the reader to Mesa's implementation. Readers already familiar
	with the issues around GL dispatch can safely skip ahead to the <A
	HREF="#overview">overview of Mesa's implementation</A>.</p>

	<H2>1. Complexity of GL Dispatch</H2>

	<p>Every GL application has at least one object called a GL <em>context</em>.
	This object, which is an implicit parameter to ever GL function, stores all
	of the GL related state for the application. Every texture, every buffer
	object, every enable, and much, much more is stored in the context. Since
	an application can have more than one context, the context to be used is
	selected by a window-system dependent function such as
	<tt>glXMakeContextCurrent</tt>.</p>

	<p>In environments that implement OpenGL with X-Windows using GLX, every GL
	function, including the pointers returned by <tt>glXGetProcAddress</tt>, are
	<em>context independent</em>. This means that no matter what context is
	currently active, the same <tt>glVertex3fv</tt> function is used.</p>

	<p>This creates the first bit of dispatch complexity. An application can
	have two GL contexts. One context is a direct rendering context where
	function calls are routed directly to a driver loaded within the
	application's address space. The other context is an indirect rendering
	context where function calls are converted to GLX protocol and sent to a
	server. The same <tt>glVertex3fv</tt> has to do the right thing depending
	on which context is current.</p>

	<p>Highly optimized drivers or GLX protocol implementations may want to
	change the behavior of GL functions depending on current state. For
	example, <tt>glFogCoordf</tt> may operate differently depending on whether
	or not fog is enabled.</p>

	<p>In multi-threaded environments, it is possible for each thread to have a
	differnt GL context current. This means that poor old <tt>glVertex3fv</tt>
	has to know which GL context is current in the thread where it is being
	called.</p>

	<A NAME="overview"/>
	<H2>2. Overview of Mesa's Implementation</H2>

	<p>Mesa uses two per-thread pointers. The first pointer stores the address
	of the context current in the thread, and the second pointer stores the
	address of the <em>dispatch table</em> associated with that context. The
	dispatch table stores pointers to functions that actually implement
	specific GL functions. Each time a new context is made current in a thread,
	these pointers a updated.</p>

	<p>The implementation of functions such as <tt>glVertex3fv</tt> becomes
	conceptually simple:</p>

	<ul>
	<li>Fetch the current dispatch table pointer.</li>
	<li>Fetch the pointer to the real <tt>glVertex3fv</tt> function from the
	table.</li>
	<li>Call the real function.</li>
	</ul>

	<p>This can be implemented in just a few lines of C code. The file
	<tt>src/mesa/glapi/glapitemp.h</tt> contains code very similar to this.</p>

	<blockquote>
	<table border="1">
	<tr><td><pre>
	void glVertex3f(GLfloat x, GLfloat y, GLfloat z)
	{
	const struct _glapi_table * const dispatch = GET_DISPATCH();

	(*dispatch->Vertex3f)(x, y, z);
	}</pre></td></tr>
	<tr><td>Sample dispatch function</td></tr></table>
	</blockquote>

	<p>The problem with this simple implementation is the large amount of
	overhead that it adds to every GL function call.</p>

	<p>In a multithreaded environment, a niave implementation of
	<tt>GET_DISPATCH</tt> involves a call to <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> or a
	similar function. Mesa provides a wrapper function called
	<tt>_glapi_get_dispatch</tt> that is used by default.</p>

	<H2>3. Optimizations</H2>

	<p>A number of optimizations have been made over the years to diminish the
	performance hit imposed by GL dispatch. This section describes these
	optimizations. The benefits of each optimization and the situations where
	each can or cannot be used are listed.</p>

	<H3>3.1. Dual dispatch table pointers</H3>

	<p>The vast majority of OpenGL applications use the API in a single threaded
	manner. That is, the application has only one thread that makes calls into
	the GL. In these cases, not only do the calls to
	<tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> hurt performance, but they are completely
	unnecessary! It is possible to detect this common case and avoid these
	calls.</p>

	<p>Each time a new dispatch table is set, Mesa examines and records the ID
	of the executing thread. If the same thread ID is always seen, Mesa knows
	that the application is, from OpenGL's point of view, single threaded.</p>

	<p>As long as an application is single threaded, Mesa stores a pointer to
	the dispatch table in a global variable called <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt>.
	The pointer is also stored in a per-thread location via
	<tt>pthread_setspecific</tt>. When Mesa detects that an application has
	become multithreaded, <tt>NULL</tt> is stored in <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt>.</p>

	<p>Using this simple mechanism the dispatch functions can detect the
	multithreaded case by comparing <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> to <tt>NULL</tt>.
	The resulting implementation of <tt>GET_DISPATCH</tt> is slightly more
	complex, but it avoids the expensive <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> call in
	the common case.</p>

	<blockquote>
	<table border="1">
	<tr><td><pre>
	#define GET_DISPATCH() \
	(_glapi_Dispatch != NULL) \
	? _glapi_Dispatch : pthread_getspecific(&_glapi_Dispatch_key)
	</pre></td></tr>
	<tr><td>Improved <tt>GET_DISPATCH</tt> Implementation</td></tr></table>
	</blockquote>

	<H3>3.2. ELF TLS</H3>

	<p>Starting with the 2.4.20 Linux kernel, each thread is allocated an area
	of per-thread, global storage. Variables can be put in this area using some
	extensions to GCC. By storing the dispatch table pointer in this area, the
	expensive call to <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> and the test of
	<tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> can be avoided.</p>

	<p>The dispatch table pointer is stored in a new variable called
	<tt>_glapi_tls_Dispatch</tt>. A new variable name is used so that a single
	libGL can implement both interfaces. This allows the libGL to operate with
	direct rendering drivers that use either interface. Once the pointer is
	properly declared, <tt>GET_DISPACH</tt> becomes a simple variable
	reference.</p>

	<blockquote>
	<table border="1">
	<tr><td><pre>
	extern __thread struct _glapi_table *_glapi_tls_Dispatch
	__attribute__((tls_model("initial-exec")));

	#define GET_DISPATCH() _glapi_tls_Dispatch
	</pre></td></tr>
	<tr><td>TLS <tt>GET_DISPATCH</tt> Implementation</td></tr></table>
	</blockquote>

	<p>Use of this path is controlled by the preprocessor define
	<tt>GLX_USE_TLS</tt>. Any platform capable of using TLS should use this as
	the default dispatch method.</p>

	<H3>3.3. Assembly Language Dispatch Stubs</H3>

	<p>Many platforms has difficulty properly optimizing the tail-call in the
	dispatch stubs. Platforms like x86 that pass parameters on the stack seem
	to have even more difficulty optimizing these routines. All of the dispatch
	routines are very short, and it is trivial to create optimal assembly
	language versions. The amount of optimization provided by using assembly
	stubs varies from platform to platform and application to application.
	However, by using the assembly stubs, many platforms can use an additional
	space optimization (see <A HREF="#fixedsize">below</A>).</p>

	<p>The biggest hurdle to creating assembly stubs is handling the various
	ways that the dispatch table pointer can be accessed. There are four
	different methods that can be used:</p>

	<ol>
	<li>Using <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> directly in builds for non-multithreaded
	environments.</li>
	<li>Using <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> and <tt>_glapi_get_dispatch</tt> in
	multithreaded environments.</li>
	<li>Using <tt>_glapi_Dispatch</tt> and <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> in
	multithreaded environments.</li>
	<li>Using <tt>_glapi_tls_Dispatch</tt> directly in TLS enabled
	multithreaded environments.</li>
	</ol>

	<p>People wishing to implement assembly stubs for new platforms should focus
	on #4 if the new platform supports TLS. Otherwise, implement #2 followed by
	#3. Environments that do not support multithreading are uncommon and not
	terribly relevant.</p>

	<p>Selection of the dispatch table pointer access method is controlled by a
	few preprocessor defines.</p>

	<ul>
	<li>If <tt>GLX_USE_TLS</tt> is defined, method #4 is used.</li>
	<li>If <tt>PTHREADS</tt> is defined, method #3 is used.</li>
	<li>If <tt>WIN32_THREADS</tt> is defined, method #2 is used.</li>
	<li>If none of the preceeding are defined, method #1 is used.</li>
	</ul>

	<p>Two different techniques are used to handle the various different cases.
	On x86 and SPARC, a macro called <tt>GL_STUB</tt> is used. In the preamble
	of the assembly source file different implementations of the macro are
	selected based on the defined preprocessor variables. The assmebly code
	then consists of a series of invocations of the macros such as:

	<blockquote>
	<table border="1">
	<tr><td><pre>
	GL_STUB(Color3fv, _gloffset_Color3fv)
	</pre></td></tr>
	<tr><td>SPARC Assembly Implementation of <tt>glColor3fv</tt></td></tr></table>
	</blockquote>

	<p>The benefit of this technique is that changes to the calling pattern
	(i.e., addition of a new dispatch table pointer access method) require fewer
	changed lines in the assembly code.</p>

	<p>However, this technique can only be used on platforms where the function
	implementation does not change based on the parameters passed to the
	function. For example, since x86 passes all parameters on the stack, no
	additional code is needed to save and restore function parameters around a
	call to <tt>pthread_getspecific</tt>. Since x86-64 passes parameters in
	registers, varying amounts of code needs to be inserted around the call to
	<tt>pthread_getspecific</tt> to save and restore the GL function's
	parameters.</p>

	<p>The other technique, used by platforms like x86-64 that cannot use the
	first technique, is to insert <tt>#ifdef</tt> within the assembly
	implementation of each function. This makes the assembly file considerably
	larger (e.g., 29,332 lines for <tt>glapi_x86-64.S</tt> versus 1,155 lines for
	<tt>glapi_x86.S</tt>) and causes simple changes to the function
	implementation to generate many lines of diffs. Since the assmebly files
	are typically generated by scripts (see <A HREF="#autogen">below</A>), this
	isn't a significant problem.</p>

	<p>Once a new assembly file is created, it must be inserted in the build
	system. There are two steps to this. The file must first be added to
	<tt>src/mesa/sources</tt>. That gets the file built and linked. The second
	step is to add the correct <tt>#ifdef</tt> magic to
	<tt>src/mesa/glapi/glapi_dispatch.c</tt> to prevent the C version of the
	dispatch functions from being built.</p>

	<A NAME="fixedsize"/>
	<H3>3.4. Fixed-Length Dispatch Stubs</H3>

	<p>To implement <tt>glXGetProcAddress</tt>, Mesa stores a table that
	associates function names with pointers to those functions. This table is
	stored in <tt>src/mesa/glapi/glprocs.h</tt>. For different reasons on
	different platforms, storing all of those pointers is inefficient. On most
	platforms, including all known platforms that support TLS, we can avoid this
	added overhead.</p>

	<p>If the assembly stubs are all the same size, the pointer need not be
	stored for every function. The location of the function can instead be
	calculated by multiplying the size of the dispatch stub by the offset of the
	function in the table. This value is then added to the address of the first
	dispatch stub.</p>

	<p>This path is activated by adding the correct <tt>#ifdef</tt> magic to
	<tt>src/mesa/glapi/glapi.c</tt> just before <tt>glprocs.h</tt> is
	included.</p>

	<A NAME="autogen"/>
	<H2>4. Automatic Generation of Dispatch Stubs</H2>

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	</HTML>