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+ <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>The LLVM Target-Independent Code Generator</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
</head>
<li><a href="#targetmachine">The <tt>TargetMachine</tt> class</a></li>
<li><a href="#targetdata">The <tt>TargetData</tt> class</a></li>
<li><a href="#targetlowering">The <tt>TargetLowering</tt> class</a></li>
- <li><a href="#mregisterinfo">The <tt>MRegisterInfo</tt> class</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#targetregisterinfo">The <tt>TargetRegisterInfo</tt> class</a></li>
<li><a href="#targetinstrinfo">The <tt>TargetInstrInfo</tt> class</a></li>
<li><a href="#targetframeinfo">The <tt>TargetFrameInfo</tt> class</a></li>
<li><a href="#targetsubtarget">The <tt>TargetSubtarget</tt> class</a></li>
Process</a></li>
<li><a href="#selectiondag_build">Initial SelectionDAG
Construction</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#selectiondag_legalize_types">SelectionDAG LegalizeTypes Phase</a></li>
<li><a href="#selectiondag_legalize">SelectionDAG Legalize Phase</a></li>
<li><a href="#selectiondag_optimize">SelectionDAG Optimization
Phase: the DAG Combiner</a></li>
<li><a href="#selectiondag_future">Future directions for the
SelectionDAG</a></li>
</ul></li>
+ <li><a href="#liveintervals">Live Intervals</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#livevariable_analysis">Live Variable Analysis</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#liveintervals_analysis">Live Intervals Analysis</a></li>
+ </ul></li>
+ <li><a href="#regalloc">Register Allocation</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#regAlloc_represent">How registers are represented in
+ LLVM</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#regAlloc_howTo">Mapping virtual registers to physical
+ registers</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#regAlloc_twoAddr">Handling two address instructions</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#regAlloc_ssaDecon">The SSA deconstruction phase</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#regAlloc_fold">Instruction folding</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#regAlloc_builtIn">Built in register allocators</a></li>
+ </ul></li>
<li><a href="#codeemit">Code Emission</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#codeemit_asm">Generating Assembly Code</a></li>
</li>
<li><a href="#targetimpls">Target-specific Implementation Notes</a>
<ul>
+ <li><a href="#tailcallopt">Tail call optimization</a></li>
<li><a href="#x86">The X86 backend</a></li>
- </ul>
- </li>
+ <li><a href="#ppc">The PowerPC backend</a>
+ <ul>
+ <li><a href="#ppc_abi">LLVM PowerPC ABI</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#ppc_frame">Frame Layout</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#ppc_prolog">Prolog/Epilog</a></li>
+ <li><a href="#ppc_dynamic">Dynamic Allocation</a></li>
+ </ul></li>
+ </ul></li>
</ol>
<div class="doc_author">
- <p>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></p>
+ <p>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a>,
+ <a href="mailto:isanbard@gmail.com">Bill Wendling</a>,
+ <a href="mailto:pronesto@gmail.com">Fernando Magno Quintao
+ Pereira</a> and
+ <a href="mailto:jlaskey@mac.com">Jim Laskey</a></p>
</div>
<div class="doc_warning">
<p>The LLVM target-independent code generator is a framework that provides a
suite of reusable components for translating the LLVM internal representation to
-the machine code for a specified target -- either in assembly form (suitable for
-a static compiler) or in binary machine code format (usable for a JIT compiler).
-The LLVM target-independent code generator consists of five main components:</p>
+the machine code for a specified target—either in assembly form (suitable
+for a static compiler) or in binary machine code format (usable for a JIT
+compiler). The LLVM target-independent code generator consists of five main
+components:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="#targetdesc">Abstract target description</a> interfaces which
implement radically different code generators in the LLVM system that do not
make use of any of the built-in components. Doing so is not recommended at all,
but could be required for radically different targets that do not fit into the
-LLVM machine description model: programmable FPGAs for example.</p>
-
-<p><b>Important Note:</b> For historical reasons, the LLVM SparcV9 code
-generator uses almost entirely different code paths than described in this
-document. For this reason, there are some deprecated interfaces (such as
-<tt>TargetSchedInfo</tt>), which are only used by the
-V9 backend and should not be used by any other targets. Also, all code in the
-<tt>lib/Target/SparcV9</tt> directory and subdirectories should be considered
-deprecated, and should not be used as the basis for future code generator work.
-The SparcV9 backend is slowly being merged into the rest of the
-target-independent code generators, but this is a low-priority process with no
-predictable completion date.</p>
+LLVM machine description model: FPGAs for example.</p>
</div>
</ol>
-<p>
-The code generator is based on the assumption that the instruction selector will
-use an optimal pattern matching selector to create high-quality sequences of
+<p>The code generator is based on the assumption that the instruction selector
+will use an optimal pattern matching selector to create high-quality sequences of
native instructions. Alternative code generator designs based on pattern
-expansion and
-aggressive iterative peephole optimization are much slower. This design
-permits efficient compilation (important for JIT environments) and
+expansion and aggressive iterative peephole optimization are much slower. This
+design permits efficient compilation (important for JIT environments) and
aggressive optimization (used when generating code offline) by allowing
components of varying levels of sophistication to be used for any step of
compilation.</p>
-<p>
-In addition to these stages, target implementations can insert arbitrary
+<p>In addition to these stages, target implementations can insert arbitrary
target-specific passes into the flow. For example, the X86 target uses a
special pass to handle the 80x87 floating point stack architecture. Other
-targets with unusual requirements can be supported with custom passes as needed.
-</p>
+targets with unusual requirements can be supported with custom passes as
+needed.</p>
</div>
code generator uses the <a href="TableGenFundamentals.html">TableGen</a> tool to
describe big chunks of the target machine, which allows the use of
domain-specific and target-specific abstractions to reduce the amount of
-repetition.
-</p>
+repetition.</p>
<p>As LLVM continues to be developed and refined, we plan to move more and more
-of the target description to be in <tt>.td</tt> form. Doing so gives us a
+of the target description to the <tt>.td</tt> form. Doing so gives us a
number of advantages. The most important is that it makes it easier to port
-LLVM, because it reduces the amount of C++ code that has to be written and the
+LLVM because it reduces the amount of C++ code that has to be written, and the
surface area of the code generator that needs to be understood before someone
-can get in an get something working. Second, it is also important to us because
-it makes it easier to change things: in particular, if tables and other things
-are all emitted by tblgen, we only need to change one place (tblgen) to update
-all of the targets to a new interface.</p>
+can get something working. Second, it makes it easier to change things. In
+particular, if tables and other things are all emitted by <tt>tblgen</tt>, we
+only need a change in one place (<tt>tblgen</tt>) to update all of the targets
+to a new interface.</p>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>The LLVM target description classes (which are located in the
+<p>The LLVM target description classes (located in the
<tt>include/llvm/Target</tt> directory) provide an abstract description of the
-target machine; independent of any particular client. These classes are
+target machine independent of any particular client. These classes are
designed to capture the <i>abstract</i> properties of the target (such as the
instructions and registers it has), and do not incorporate any particular pieces
of code generation algorithms.</p>
<p>The <tt>TargetLowering</tt> class is used by SelectionDAG based instruction
selectors primarily to describe how LLVM code should be lowered to SelectionDAG
-operations. Among other things, this class indicates:
-<ul><li>an initial register class to use for various ValueTypes</li>
+operations. Among other things, this class indicates:</p>
+
+<ul>
+ <li>an initial register class to use for various <tt>ValueType</tt>s</li>
<li>which operations are natively supported by the target machine</li>
- <li>the return type of setcc operations</li>
+ <li>the return type of <tt>setcc</tt> operations</li>
<li>the type to use for shift amounts</li>
<li>various high-level characteristics, like whether it is profitable to turn
division by a constant into a multiplication sequence</li>
-</ol></p>
+</ul>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="mregisterinfo">The <tt>MRegisterInfo</tt> class</a>
+ <a name="targetregisterinfo">The <tt>TargetRegisterInfo</tt> class</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>The <tt>MRegisterInfo</tt> class (which will eventually be renamed to
-<tt>TargetRegisterInfo</tt>) is used to describe the register file of the
-target and any interactions between the registers.</p>
+<p>The <tt>TargetRegisterInfo</tt> class is used to describe the register
+file of the target and any interactions between the registers.</p>
<p>Registers in the code generator are represented in the code generator by
-unsigned numbers. Physical registers (those that actually exist in the target
+unsigned integers. Physical registers (those that actually exist in the target
description) are unique small numbers, and virtual registers are generally
large. Note that register #0 is reserved as a flag value.</p>
<p>Each register in the processor description has an associated
-<tt>TargetRegisterDesc</tt> entry, which provides a textual name for the register
-(used for assembly output and debugging dumps) and a set of aliases (used to
-indicate that one register overlaps with another).
+<tt>TargetRegisterDesc</tt> entry, which provides a textual name for the
+register (used for assembly output and debugging dumps) and a set of aliases
+(used to indicate whether one register overlaps with another).
</p>
-<p>In addition to the per-register description, the <tt>MRegisterInfo</tt> class
-exposes a set of processor specific register classes (instances of the
+<p>In addition to the per-register description, the <tt>TargetRegisterInfo</tt>
+class exposes a set of processor specific register classes (instances of the
<tt>TargetRegisterClass</tt> class). Each register class contains sets of
registers that have the same properties (for example, they are all 32-bit
integer registers). Each SSA virtual register created by the instruction
instruction the target supports. Descriptors define things like the mnemonic
for the opcode, the number of operands, the list of implicit register uses
and defs, whether the instruction has certain target-independent properties
- (accesses memory, is commutable, etc), and holds any target-specific flags.</p>
+ (accesses memory, is commutable, etc), and holds any target-specific
+ flags.</p>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<p>The <tt>TargetFrameInfo</tt> class is used to provide information about the
stack frame layout of the target. It holds the direction of stack growth,
the known stack alignment on entry to each function, and the offset to the
- locals area. The offset to the local area is the offset from the stack
+ local area. The offset to the local area is the offset from the stack
pointer on function entry to the first location where function data (local
variables, spill locations) can be stored.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <p>
<p>The <tt>TargetSubtarget</tt> class is used to provide information about the
specific chip set being targeted. A sub-target informs code generation of
which instructions are supported, instruction latencies and instruction
execution itinerary; i.e., which processing units are used, in what order, and
- for how long.
- </p>
+ for how long.</p>
</div>
<a name="targetjitinfo">The <tt>TargetJITInfo</tt> class</a>
</div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+ <p>The <tt>TargetJITInfo</tt> class exposes an abstract interface used by the
+ Just-In-Time code generator to perform target-specific activities, such as
+ emitting stubs. If a <tt>TargetMachine</tt> supports JIT code generation, it
+ should provide one of these objects through the <tt>getJITInfo</tt>
+ method.</p>
+</div>
+
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="codegendesc">Machine code description classes</a>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>
-At the high-level, LLVM code is translated to a machine specific representation
-formed out of <a href="#machinefunction">MachineFunction</a>,
-<a href="#machinebasicblock">MachineBasicBlock</a>, and <a
+<p>At the high-level, LLVM code is translated to a machine specific
+representation formed out of
+<a href="#machinefunction"><tt>MachineFunction</tt></a>,
+<a href="#machinebasicblock"><tt>MachineBasicBlock</tt></a>, and <a
href="#machineinstr"><tt>MachineInstr</tt></a> instances
-(defined in include/llvm/CodeGen). This representation is completely target
-agnostic, representing instructions in their most abstract form: an opcode and a
-series of operands. This representation is designed to support both SSA
-representation for machine code, as well as a register allocated, non-SSA form.
-</p>
+(defined in <tt>include/llvm/CodeGen</tt>). This representation is completely
+target agnostic, representing instructions in their most abstract form: an
+opcode and a series of operands. This representation is designed to support
+both an SSA representation for machine code, as well as a register allocated,
+non-SSA form.</p>
</div>
representing machine instructions. In particular, it only keeps track of
an opcode number and a set of operands.</p>
-<p>The opcode number is a simple unsigned number that only has meaning to a
+<p>The opcode number is a simple unsigned integer that only has meaning to a
specific backend. All of the instructions for a target should be defined in
the <tt>*InstrInfo.td</tt> file for the target. The opcode enum values
are auto-generated from this description. The <tt>MachineInstr</tt> class does
not have any information about how to interpret the instruction (i.e., what the
-semantics of the instruction are): for that you must refer to the
+semantics of the instruction are); for that you must refer to the
<tt><a href="#targetinstrinfo">TargetInstrInfo</a></tt> class.</p>
<p>The operands of a machine instruction can be of several different types:
-they can be a register reference, constant integer, basic block reference, etc.
-In addition, a machine operand should be marked as a def or a use of the value
+a register reference, a constant integer, a basic block reference, etc. In
+addition, a machine operand should be marked as a def or a use of the value
(though only registers are allowed to be defs).</p>
<p>By convention, the LLVM code generator orders instruction operands so that
list has several advantages. In particular, the debugging printer will print
the instruction like this:</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- %r3 = add %i1, %i2
+%r3 = add %i1, %i2
</pre>
+</div>
-<p>If the first operand is a def, and it is also easier to <a
+<p>Also if the first operand is a def, it is easier to <a
href="#buildmi">create instructions</a> whose only def is the first
operand.</p>
<p>Machine instructions are created by using the <tt>BuildMI</tt> functions,
located in the <tt>include/llvm/CodeGen/MachineInstrBuilder.h</tt> file. The
<tt>BuildMI</tt> functions make it easy to build arbitrary machine
-instructions. Usage of the <tt>BuildMI</tt> functions look like this:
-</p>
+instructions. Usage of the <tt>BuildMI</tt> functions look like this:</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- // Create a 'DestReg = mov 42' (rendered in X86 assembly as 'mov DestReg, 42')
- // instruction. The '1' specifies how many operands will be added.
- MachineInstr *MI = BuildMI(X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
+// Create a 'DestReg = mov 42' (rendered in X86 assembly as 'mov DestReg, 42')
+// instruction. The '1' specifies how many operands will be added.
+MachineInstr *MI = BuildMI(X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
- // Create the same instr, but insert it at the end of a basic block.
- MachineBasicBlock &MBB = ...
- BuildMI(MBB, X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
+// Create the same instr, but insert it at the end of a basic block.
+MachineBasicBlock &MBB = ...
+BuildMI(MBB, X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
- // Create the same instr, but insert it before a specified iterator point.
- MachineBasicBlock::iterator MBBI = ...
- BuildMI(MBB, MBBI, X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
+// Create the same instr, but insert it before a specified iterator point.
+MachineBasicBlock::iterator MBBI = ...
+BuildMI(MBB, MBBI, X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
- // Create a 'cmp Reg, 0' instruction, no destination reg.
- MI = BuildMI(X86::CMP32ri, 2).addReg(Reg).addImm(0);
- // Create an 'sahf' instruction which takes no operands and stores nothing.
- MI = BuildMI(X86::SAHF, 0);
+// Create a 'cmp Reg, 0' instruction, no destination reg.
+MI = BuildMI(X86::CMP32ri, 2).addReg(Reg).addImm(0);
+// Create an 'sahf' instruction which takes no operands and stores nothing.
+MI = BuildMI(X86::SAHF, 0);
- // Create a self looping branch instruction.
- BuildMI(MBB, X86::JNE, 1).addMBB(&MBB);
+// Create a self looping branch instruction.
+BuildMI(MBB, X86::JNE, 1).addMBB(&MBB);
</pre>
+</div>
-<p>
-The key thing to remember with the <tt>BuildMI</tt> functions is that you have
-to specify the number of operands that the machine instruction will take. This
-allows for efficient memory allocation. You also need to specify if operands
-default to be uses of values, not definitions. If you need to add a definition
-operand (other than the optional destination register), you must explicitly
-mark it as such.
-</p>
+<p>The key thing to remember with the <tt>BuildMI</tt> functions is that you
+have to specify the number of operands that the machine instruction will take.
+This allows for efficient memory allocation. You also need to specify if
+operands default to be uses of values, not definitions. If you need to add a
+definition operand (other than the optional destination register), you must
+explicitly mark it as such:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+MI.addReg(Reg, MachineOperand::Def);
+</pre>
+</div>
</div>
<p>For example, consider this simple LLVM example:</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- int %test(int %X, int %Y) {
- %Z = div int %X, %Y
- ret int %Z
- }
+define i32 @test(i32 %X, i32 %Y) {
+ %Z = udiv i32 %X, %Y
+ ret i32 %Z
+}
</pre>
+</div>
-<p>The X86 instruction selector produces this machine code for the div
-and ret (use
+<p>The X86 instruction selector produces this machine code for the <tt>div</tt>
+and <tt>ret</tt> (use
"<tt>llc X.bc -march=x86 -print-machineinstrs</tt>" to get this):</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- ;; Start of div
- %EAX = mov %reg1024 ;; Copy X (in reg1024) into EAX
- %reg1027 = sar %reg1024, 31
- %EDX = mov %reg1027 ;; Sign extend X into EDX
- idiv %reg1025 ;; Divide by Y (in reg1025)
- %reg1026 = mov %EAX ;; Read the result (Z) out of EAX
-
- ;; Start of ret
- %EAX = mov %reg1026 ;; 32-bit return value goes in EAX
- ret
+;; Start of div
+%EAX = mov %reg1024 ;; Copy X (in reg1024) into EAX
+%reg1027 = sar %reg1024, 31
+%EDX = mov %reg1027 ;; Sign extend X into EDX
+idiv %reg1025 ;; Divide by Y (in reg1025)
+%reg1026 = mov %EAX ;; Read the result (Z) out of EAX
+
+;; Start of ret
+%EAX = mov %reg1026 ;; 32-bit return value goes in EAX
+ret
</pre>
+</div>
<p>By the end of code generation, the register allocator has coalesced
-the registers and deleted the resultant identity moves, producing the
+the registers and deleted the resultant identity moves producing the
following code:</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- ;; X is in EAX, Y is in ECX
- mov %EAX, %EDX
- sar %EDX, 31
- idiv %ECX
- ret
+;; X is in EAX, Y is in ECX
+mov %EAX, %EDX
+sar %EDX, 31
+idiv %ECX
+ret
</pre>
+</div>
<p>This approach is extremely general (if it can handle the X86 architecture,
it can handle anything!) and allows all of the target specific
knowledge about the instruction stream to be isolated in the instruction
selector. Note that physical registers should have a short lifetime for good
-code generation, and all physical registers are assumed dead on entry and
-exit of basic blocks (before register allocation). Thus if you need a value
+code generation, and all physical registers are assumed dead on entry to and
+exit from basic blocks (before register allocation). Thus, if you need a value
to be live across basic block boundaries, it <em>must</em> live in a virtual
register.</p>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
- <a name="ssa">Machine code SSA form</a>
+ <a name="ssa">Machine code in SSA form</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p><tt>MachineInstr</tt>'s are initially selected in SSA-form, and
are maintained in SSA-form until register allocation happens. For the most
-part, this is trivially simple since LLVM is already in SSA form: LLVM PHI nodes
+part, this is trivially simple since LLVM is already in SSA form; LLVM PHI nodes
become machine code PHI nodes, and virtual registers are only allowed to have a
single definition.</p>
-<p>After register allocation, machine code is no longer in SSA-form, as there
+<p>After register allocation, machine code is no longer in SSA-form because there
are no virtual registers left in the code.</p>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>The <tt>MachineBasicBlock</tt> class contains a list of machine instructions
-(<a href="#machineinstr">MachineInstr</a> instances). It roughly corresponds to
-the LLVM code input to the instruction selector, but there can be a one-to-many
-mapping (i.e. one LLVM basic block can map to multiple machine basic blocks).
-The MachineBasicBlock class has a "<tt>getBasicBlock</tt>" method, which returns
-the LLVM basic block that it comes from.
-</p>
+(<tt><a href="#machineinstr">MachineInstr</a></tt> instances). It roughly
+corresponds to the LLVM code input to the instruction selector, but there can be
+a one-to-many mapping (i.e. one LLVM basic block can map to multiple machine
+basic blocks). The <tt>MachineBasicBlock</tt> class has a
+"<tt>getBasicBlock</tt>" method, which returns the LLVM basic block that it
+comes from.</p>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>The <tt>MachineFunction</tt> class contains a list of machine basic blocks
-(<a href="#machinebasicblock">MachineBasicBlock</a> instances). It corresponds
-one-to-one with the LLVM function input to the instruction selector. In
-addition to a list of basic blocks, the <tt>MachineFunction</tt> contains a
-the MachineConstantPool, MachineFrameInfo, MachineFunctionInfo,
-SSARegMap, and a set of live in and live out registers for the function. See
-<tt>MachineFunction.h</tt> for more information.
-</p>
+(<tt><a href="#machinebasicblock">MachineBasicBlock</a></tt> instances). It
+corresponds one-to-one with the LLVM function input to the instruction selector.
+In addition to a list of basic blocks, the <tt>MachineFunction</tt> contains a
+a <tt>MachineConstantPool</tt>, a <tt>MachineFrameInfo</tt>, a
+<tt>MachineFunctionInfo</tt>, and a <tt>MachineRegisterInfo</tt>. See
+<tt>include/llvm/CodeGen/MachineFunction.h</tt> for more information.</p>
</div>
-
-
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<a name="codegenalgs">Target-independent code generation algorithms</a>
<p>
Instruction Selection is the process of translating LLVM code presented to the
code generator into target-specific machine instructions. There are several
-well-known ways to do this in the literature. In LLVM there are two main forms:
-the SelectionDAG based instruction selector framework and an old-style 'simple'
-instruction selector (which effectively peephole selects each LLVM instruction
-into a series of machine instructions). We recommend that all targets use the
-SelectionDAG infrastructure.
+well-known ways to do this in the literature. LLVM uses a SelectionDAG based
+instruction selector.
</p>
<p>Portions of the DAG instruction selector are generated from the target
-description files (<tt>*.td</tt>) files. Eventually, we aim for the entire
-instruction selector to be generated from these <tt>.td</tt> files.</p>
+description (<tt>*.td</tt>) files. Our goal is for the entire instruction
+selector to be generated from these <tt>.td</tt> files, though currently
+there are still things that require custom C++ code.</p>
</div>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>
-The SelectionDAG provides an abstraction for code representation in a way that
-is amenable to instruction selection using automatic techniques
-(e.g. dynamic-programming based optimal pattern matching selectors), It is also
-well suited to other phases of code generation; in particular,
+<p>The SelectionDAG provides an abstraction for code representation in a way
+that is amenable to instruction selection using automatic techniques
+(e.g. dynamic-programming based optimal pattern matching selectors). It is also
+well-suited to other phases of code generation; in particular,
instruction scheduling (SelectionDAG's are very close to scheduling DAGs
post-selection). Additionally, the SelectionDAG provides a host representation
where a large variety of very-low-level (but target-independent)
<a href="#selectiondag_optimize">optimizations</a> may be
-performed: ones which require extensive information about the instructions
-efficiently supported by the target.
-</p>
+performed; ones which require extensive information about the instructions
+efficiently supported by the target.</p>
-<p>
-The SelectionDAG is a Directed-Acyclic-Graph whose nodes are instances of the
+<p>The SelectionDAG is a Directed-Acyclic-Graph whose nodes are instances of the
<tt>SDNode</tt> class. The primary payload of the <tt>SDNode</tt> is its
operation code (Opcode) that indicates what operation the node performs and
the operands to the operation.
both the dividend and the remainder. Many other situations require multiple
values as well. Each node also has some number of operands, which are edges
to the node defining the used value. Because nodes may define multiple values,
-edges are represented by instances of the <tt>SDOperand</tt> class, which is
-a <SDNode, unsigned> pair, indicating the node and result
-value being used, respectively. Each value produced by an SDNode has an
-associated MVT::ValueType, indicating what type the value is.
-</p>
-
-<p>
-SelectionDAGs contain two different kinds of values: those that represent data
-flow and those that represent control flow dependencies. Data values are simple
-edges with an integer or floating point value type. Control edges are
-represented as "chain" edges which are of type MVT::Other. These edges provide
-an ordering between nodes that have side effects (such as
-loads/stores/calls/return/etc). All nodes that have side effects should take a
-token chain as input and produce a new one as output. By convention, token
-chain inputs are always operand #0, and chain results are always the last
+edges are represented by instances of the <tt>SDValue</tt> class, which is
+a <tt><SDNode, unsigned></tt> pair, indicating the node and result
+value being used, respectively. Each value produced by an <tt>SDNode</tt> has
+an associated <tt>MVT</tt> (Machine Value Type) indicating what the type of the
+value is.</p>
+
+<p>SelectionDAGs contain two different kinds of values: those that represent
+data flow and those that represent control flow dependencies. Data values are
+simple edges with an integer or floating point value type. Control edges are
+represented as "chain" edges which are of type <tt>MVT::Other</tt>. These edges
+provide an ordering between nodes that have side effects (such as
+loads, stores, calls, returns, etc). All nodes that have side effects should
+take a token chain as input and produce a new one as output. By convention,
+token chain inputs are always operand #0, and chain results are always the last
value produced by an operation.</p>
-<p>
-A SelectionDAG has designated "Entry" and "Root" nodes. The Entry node is
-always a marker node with an Opcode of ISD::EntryToken. The Root node is the
-final side-effecting node in the token chain. For example, in a single basic
-block function, this would be the return node.
-</p>
+<p>A SelectionDAG has designated "Entry" and "Root" nodes. The Entry node is
+always a marker node with an Opcode of <tt>ISD::EntryToken</tt>. The Root node
+is the final side-effecting node in the token chain. For example, in a single
+basic block function it would be the return node.</p>
+
+<p>One important concept for SelectionDAGs is the notion of a "legal" vs.
+"illegal" DAG. A legal DAG for a target is one that only uses supported
+operations and supported types. On a 32-bit PowerPC, for example, a DAG with
+a value of type i1, i8, i16, or i64 would be illegal, as would a DAG that uses a
+SREM or UREM operation. The
+<a href="#selectinodag_legalize_types">legalize types</a> and
+<a href="#selectiondag_legalize">legalize operations</a> phases are
+responsible for turning an illegal DAG into a legal DAG.</p>
-<p>
-One important concept for SelectionDAGs is the notion of a "legal" vs. "illegal"
-DAG. A legal DAG for a target is one that only uses supported operations and
-supported types. On a 32-bit PowerPC, for example, a DAG with any values of i1,
-i8, i16,
-or i64 type would be illegal, as would a DAG that uses a SREM or UREM operation.
-The <a href="#selectiondag_legalize">legalize</a>
-phase is responsible for turning an illegal DAG into a legal DAG.
-</p>
</div>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>
-SelectionDAG-based instruction selection consists of the following steps:
-</p>
+<p>SelectionDAG-based instruction selection consists of the following steps:</p>
<ol>
-<li><a href="#selectiondag_build">Build initial DAG</a> - This stage performs
- a simple translation from the input LLVM code to an illegal SelectionDAG.
- </li>
+<li><a href="#selectiondag_build">Build initial DAG</a> - This stage
+ performs a simple translation from the input LLVM code to an illegal
+ SelectionDAG.</li>
<li><a href="#selectiondag_optimize">Optimize SelectionDAG</a> - This stage
- performs simple optimizations on the SelectionDAG to simplify it and
- recognize meta instructions (like rotates and div/rem pairs) for
- targets that support these meta operations. This makes the resultant code
- more efficient and the 'select instructions from DAG' phase (below) simpler.
-</li>
-<li><a href="#selectiondag_legalize">Legalize SelectionDAG</a> - This stage
- converts the illegal SelectionDAG to a legal SelectionDAG, by eliminating
- unsupported operations and data types.</li>
-<li><a href="#selectiondag_optimize">Optimize SelectionDAG (#2)</a> - This
- second run of the SelectionDAG optimized the newly legalized DAG, to
- eliminate inefficiencies introduced by legalization.</li>
+ performs simple optimizations on the SelectionDAG to simplify it, and
+ recognize meta instructions (like rotates and <tt>div</tt>/<tt>rem</tt>
+ pairs) for targets that support these meta operations. This makes the
+ resultant code more efficient and the <a href="#selectiondag_select">select
+ instructions from DAG</a> phase (below) simpler.</li>
+<li><a href="#selectiondag_legalize_types">Legalize SelectionDAG Types</a> - This
+ stage transforms SelectionDAG nodes to eliminate any types that are
+ unsupported on the target.</li>
+<li><a href="#selectiondag_optimize">Optimize SelectionDAG</a> - The
+ SelectionDAG optimizer is run to clean up redundancies exposed
+ by type legalization.</li>
+<li><a href="#selectiondag_legalize">Legalize SelectionDAG Types</a> - This
+ stage transforms SelectionDAG nodes to eliminate any types that are
+ unsupported on the target.</li>
+<li><a href="#selectiondag_optimize">Optimize SelectionDAG</a> - The
+ SelectionDAG optimizer is run to eliminate inefficiencies introduced
+ by operation legalization.</li>
<li><a href="#selectiondag_select">Select instructions from DAG</a> - Finally,
the target instruction selector matches the DAG operations to target
instructions. This process translates the target-independent input DAG into
rest of the code generation passes are run.</p>
<p>One great way to visualize what is going on here is to take advantage of a
-few LLC command line options. In particular, the <tt>-view-isel-dags</tt>
-option pops up a window with the SelectionDAG input to the Select phase for all
-of the code compiled (if you only get errors printed to the console while using
-this, you probably <a href="ProgrammersManual.html#ViewGraph">need to configure
-your system</a> to add support for it). The <tt>-view-sched-dags</tt> option
-views the SelectionDAG output from the Select phase and input to the Scheduler
-phase.
+few LLC command line options. The following options pop up a window displaying
+the SelectionDAG at specific times (if you only get errors printed to the console
+while using this, you probably
+<a href="ProgrammersManual.html#ViewGraph">need to configure your system</a> to
+add support for it).</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li><tt>-view-dag-combine1-dags</tt> displays the DAG after being built, before
+ the first optimization pass.</li>
+<li><tt>-view-legalize-dags</tt> displays the DAG before Legalization.</li>
+<li><tt>-view-dag-combine2-dags</tt> displays the DAG before the second
+ optimization pass.</li>
+<li><tt>-view-isel-dags</tt> displays the DAG before the Select phase.</li>
+<li><tt>-view-sched-dags</tt> displays the DAG before Scheduling.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The <tt>-view-sunit-dags</tt> displays the Scheduler's dependency graph.
+This graph is based on the final SelectionDAG, with nodes that must be
+scheduled together bundled into a single scheduling-unit node, and with
+immediate operands and other nodes that aren't relevant for scheduling
+omitted.
</p>
+
</div>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>
-The initial SelectionDAG is naively peephole expanded from the LLVM input by
-the <tt>SelectionDAGLowering</tt> class in the SelectionDAGISel.cpp file. The
-intent of this pass is to expose as much low-level, target-specific details
-to the SelectionDAG as possible. This pass is mostly hard-coded (e.g. an LLVM
-add turns into an SDNode add while a geteelementptr is expanded into the obvious
-arithmetic). This pass requires target-specific hooks to lower calls and
-returns, varargs, etc. For these features, the <a
-href="#targetlowering">TargetLowering</a> interface is
-used.
-</p>
+<p>The initial SelectionDAG is naïvely peephole expanded from the LLVM
+input by the <tt>SelectionDAGLowering</tt> class in the
+<tt>lib/CodeGen/SelectionDAG/SelectionDAGISel.cpp</tt> file. The intent of this
+pass is to expose as much low-level, target-specific details to the SelectionDAG
+as possible. This pass is mostly hard-coded (e.g. an LLVM <tt>add</tt> turns
+into an <tt>SDNode add</tt> while a <tt>getelementptr</tt> is expanded into the
+obvious arithmetic). This pass requires target-specific hooks to lower calls,
+returns, varargs, etc. For these features, the
+<tt><a href="#targetlowering">TargetLowering</a></tt> interface is used.</p>
</div>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
- <a name="selectiondag_legalize">SelectionDAG Legalize Phase</a>
+ <a name="selectiondag_legalize_types">SelectionDAG LegalizeTypes Phase</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>The Legalize phase is in charge of converting a DAG to only use the types and
-operations that are natively supported by the target. This involves two major
-tasks:</p>
+<p>The Legalize phase is in charge of converting a DAG to only use the types
+that are natively supported by the target.</p>
-<ol>
-<li><p>Convert values of unsupported types to values of supported types.</p>
- <p>There are two main ways of doing this: converting small types to
- larger types ("promoting"), and breaking up large integer types
- into smaller ones ("expanding"). For example, a target might require
- that all f32 values are promoted to f64 and that all i1/i8/i16 values
- are promoted to i32. The same target might require that all i64 values
- be expanded into i32 values. These changes can insert sign and zero
- extensions as
- needed to make sure that the final code has the same behavior as the
- input.</p>
- <p>A target implementation tells the legalizer which types are supported
- (and which register class to use for them) by calling the
- "addRegisterClass" method in its TargetLowering constructor.</p>
-</li>
+<p>There are two main ways of converting values of unsupported scalar types
+ to values of supported types: converting small types to
+ larger types ("promoting"), and breaking up large integer types
+ into smaller ones ("expanding"). For example, a target might require
+ that all f32 values are promoted to f64 and that all i1/i8/i16 values
+ are promoted to i32. The same target might require that all i64 values
+ be expanded into pairs of i32 values. These changes can insert sign and
+ zero extensions as needed to make sure that the final code has the same
+ behavior as the input.</p>
-<li><p>Eliminate operations that are not supported by the target.</p>
- <p>Targets often have weird constraints, such as not supporting every
- operation on every supported datatype (e.g. X86 does not support byte
- conditional moves and PowerPC does not support sign-extending loads from
- a 16-bit memory location). Legalize takes care by open-coding
- another sequence of operations to emulate the operation ("expansion"), by
- promoting to a larger type that supports the operation
- (promotion), or using a target-specific hook to implement the
- legalization (custom).</p>
- <p>A target implementation tells the legalizer which operations are not
- supported (and which of the above three actions to take) by calling the
- "setOperationAction" method in its TargetLowering constructor.</p>
-</li>
-</ol>
+<p>There are two main ways of converting values of unsupported vector types
+ to value of supported types: splitting vector types, multiple times if
+ necessary, until a legal type is found, and extending vector types by
+ adding elements to the end to round them out to legal types ("widening").
+ If a vector gets split all the way down to single-element parts with
+ no supported vector type being found, the elements are converted to
+ scalars ("scalarizing").</p>
-<p>
-Prior to the existance of the Legalize pass, we required that every
-target <a href="#selectiondag_optimize">selector</a> supported and handled every
+<p>A target implementation tells the legalizer which types are supported
+ (and which register class to use for them) by calling the
+ <tt>addRegisterClass</tt> method in its TargetLowering constructor.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="selectiondag_legalize">SelectionDAG Legalize Phase</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The Legalize phase is in charge of converting a DAG to only use the
+operations that are natively supported by the target.</p>
+
+<p>Targets often have weird constraints, such as not supporting every
+ operation on every supported datatype (e.g. X86 does not support byte
+ conditional moves and PowerPC does not support sign-extending loads from
+ a 16-bit memory location). Legalize takes care of this by open-coding
+ another sequence of operations to emulate the operation ("expansion"), by
+ promoting one type to a larger type that supports the operation
+ ("promotion"), or by using a target-specific hook to implement the
+ legalization ("custom").</p>
+
+<p>A target implementation tells the legalizer which operations are not
+ supported (and which of the above three actions to take) by calling the
+ <tt>setOperationAction</tt> method in its <tt>TargetLowering</tt>
+ constructor.</p>
+
+<p>Prior to the existence of the Legalize passes, we required that every target
+<a href="#selectiondag_optimize">selector</a> supported and handled every
operator and type even if they are not natively supported. The introduction of
-the Legalize phase allows all of the
-cannonicalization patterns to be shared across targets, and makes it very
-easy to optimize the cannonicalized code because it is still in the form of
-a DAG.
-</p>
+the Legalize phases allows all of the canonicalization patterns to be shared
+across targets, and makes it very easy to optimize the canonicalized code
+because it is still in the form of a DAG.</p>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>
-The SelectionDAG optimization phase is run twice for code generation: once
-immediately after the DAG is built and once after legalization. The first run
-of the pass allows the initial code to be cleaned up (e.g. performing
+<p>The SelectionDAG optimization phase is run multiple times for code generation,
+immediately after the DAG is built and once after each legalization. The first
+run of the pass allows the initial code to be cleaned up (e.g. performing
optimizations that depend on knowing that the operators have restricted type
-inputs). The second run of the pass cleans up the messy code generated by the
-Legalize pass, which allows Legalize to be very simple (it can focus on making
-code legal instead of focusing on generating <i>good</i> and legal code).
-</p>
+inputs). Subsequent runs of the pass clean up the messy code generated by the
+Legalize passes, which allows Legalize to be very simple (it can focus on making
+code legal instead of focusing on generating <em>good</em> and legal code).</p>
-<p>
-One important class of optimizations performed is optimizing inserted sign and
-zero extension instructions. We currently use ad-hoc techniques, but could move
-to more rigorous techniques in the future. Here are some good
-papers on the subject:</p>
+<p>One important class of optimizations performed is optimizing inserted sign
+and zero extension instructions. We currently use ad-hoc techniques, but could
+move to more rigorous techniques in the future. Here are some good papers on
+the subject:</p>
<p>
-"<a href="http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~nr/pubs/widen-abstract.html">Widening
-integer arithmetic</a>"<br>
-Kevin Redwine and Norman Ramsey<br>
-International Conference on Compiler Construction (CC) 2004
+ "<a href="http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~nr/pubs/widen-abstract.html">Widening
+ integer arithmetic</a>"<br>
+ Kevin Redwine and Norman Ramsey<br>
+ International Conference on Compiler Construction (CC) 2004
</p>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>The Select phase is the bulk of the target-specific code for instruction
-selection. This phase takes a legal SelectionDAG as input,
-pattern matches the instructions supported by the target to this DAG, and
-produces a new DAG of target code. For example, consider the following LLVM
-fragment:</p>
+selection. This phase takes a legal SelectionDAG as input, pattern matches the
+instructions supported by the target to this DAG, and produces a new DAG of
+target code. For example, consider the following LLVM fragment:</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- %t1 = add float %W, %X
- %t2 = mul float %t1, %Y
- %t3 = add float %t2, %Z
+%t1 = add float %W, %X
+%t2 = mul float %t1, %Y
+%t3 = add float %t2, %Z
</pre>
+</div>
-<p>This LLVM code corresponds to a SelectionDAG that looks basically like this:
-</p>
+<p>This LLVM code corresponds to a SelectionDAG that looks basically like
+this:</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- (fadd:f32 (fmul:f32 (fadd:f32 W, X), Y), Z)
+(fadd:f32 (fmul:f32 (fadd:f32 W, X), Y), Z)
</pre>
+</div>
-<p>If a target supports floating pointer multiply-and-add (FMA) operations, one
+<p>If a target supports floating point multiply-and-add (FMA) operations, one
of the adds can be merged with the multiply. On the PowerPC, for example, the
output of the instruction selector might look like this DAG:</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- (FMADDS (FADDS W, X), Y, Z)
+(FMADDS (FADDS W, X), Y, Z)
</pre>
+</div>
-<p>
-The FMADDS instruction is a ternary instruction that multiplies its first two
-operands and adds the third (as single-precision floating-point numbers). The
-FADDS instruction is a simple binary single-precision add instruction. To
-perform this pattern match, the PowerPC backend includes the following
-instruction definitions:
-</p>
+<p>The <tt>FMADDS</tt> instruction is a ternary instruction that multiplies its
+first two operands and adds the third (as single-precision floating-point
+numbers). The <tt>FADDS</tt> instruction is a simple binary single-precision
+add instruction. To perform this pattern match, the PowerPC backend includes
+the following instruction definitions:</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
def FMADDS : AForm_1<59, 29,
(ops F4RC:$FRT, F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRC, F4RC:$FRB),
"fadds $FRT, $FRA, $FRB",
[<b>(set F4RC:$FRT, (fadd F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRB))</b>]>;
</pre>
+</div>
<p>The portion of the instruction definition in bold indicates the pattern used
to match the instruction. The DAG operators (like <tt>fmul</tt>/<tt>fadd</tt>)
are defined in the <tt>lib/Target/TargetSelectionDAG.td</tt> file.
-"<tt>F4RC</tt>" is the register class of the input and result values.<p>
+"<tt>F4RC</tt>" is the register class of the input and result values.</p>
<p>The TableGen DAG instruction selector generator reads the instruction
-patterns in the .td and automatically builds parts of the pattern matching code
-for your target. It has the following strengths:</p>
+patterns in the <tt>.td</tt> file and automatically builds parts of the pattern
+matching code for your target. It has the following strengths:</p>
<ul>
<li>At compiler-compiler time, it analyzes your instruction patterns and tells
<li>It can handle arbitrary constraints on operands for the pattern match. In
particular, it is straight-forward to say things like "match any immediate
that is a 13-bit sign-extended value". For examples, see the
- <tt>immSExt16</tt> and related tblgen classes in the PowerPC backend.</li>
+ <tt>immSExt16</tt> and related <tt>tblgen</tt> classes in the PowerPC
+ backend.</li>
<li>It knows several important identities for the patterns defined. For
example, it knows that addition is commutative, so it allows the
<tt>FMADDS</tt> pattern above to match "<tt>(fadd X, (fmul Y, Z))</tt>" as
to specially handle this case.</li>
<li>It has a full-featured type-inferencing system. In particular, you should
rarely have to explicitly tell the system what type parts of your patterns
- are. In the FMADDS case above, we didn't have to tell tblgen that all of
- the nodes in the pattern are of type 'f32'. It was able to infer and
- propagate this knowledge from the fact that F4RC has type 'f32'.</li>
+ are. In the <tt>FMADDS</tt> case above, we didn't have to tell
+ <tt>tblgen</tt> that all of the nodes in the pattern are of type 'f32'. It
+ was able to infer and propagate this knowledge from the fact that
+ <tt>F4RC</tt> has type 'f32'.</li>
<li>Targets can define their own (and rely on built-in) "pattern fragments".
Pattern fragments are chunks of reusable patterns that get inlined into your
- patterns during compiler-compiler time. For example, the integer "(not x)"
- operation is actually defined as a pattern fragment that expands as
- "(xor x, -1)", since the SelectionDAG does not have a native 'not'
- operation. Targets can define their own short-hand fragments as they see
- fit. See the definition of 'not' and 'ineg' for examples.</li>
+ patterns during compiler-compiler time. For example, the integer
+ "<tt>(not x)</tt>" operation is actually defined as a pattern fragment that
+ expands as "<tt>(xor x, -1)</tt>", since the SelectionDAG does not have a
+ native '<tt>not</tt>' operation. Targets can define their own short-hand
+ fragments as they see fit. See the definition of '<tt>not</tt>' and
+ '<tt>ineg</tt>' for examples.</li>
<li>In addition to instructions, targets can specify arbitrary patterns that
- map to one or more instructions, using the 'Pat' class. For example,
+ map to one or more instructions using the 'Pat' class. For example,
the PowerPC has no way to load an arbitrary integer immediate into a
register in one instruction. To tell tblgen how to do this, it defines:
-
+ <br>
+ <br>
+ <div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- // Arbitrary immediate support. Implement in terms of LIS/ORI.
- def : Pat<(i32 imm:$imm),
- (ORI (LIS (HI16 imm:$imm)), (LO16 imm:$imm))>;
+// Arbitrary immediate support. Implement in terms of LIS/ORI.
+def : Pat<(i32 imm:$imm),
+ (ORI (LIS (HI16 imm:$imm)), (LO16 imm:$imm))>;
</pre>
-
+ </div>
+ <br>
If none of the single-instruction patterns for loading an immediate into a
register match, this will be used. This rule says "match an arbitrary i32
- immediate, turning it into an ORI ('or a 16-bit immediate') and an LIS
- ('load 16-bit immediate, where the immediate is shifted to the left 16
- bits') instruction". To make this work, the LO16/HI16 node transformations
- are used to manipulate the input immediate (in this case, take the high or
- low 16-bits of the immediate).
- </li>
+ immediate, turning it into an <tt>ORI</tt> ('or a 16-bit immediate') and an
+ <tt>LIS</tt> ('load 16-bit immediate, where the immediate is shifted to the
+ left 16 bits') instruction". To make this work, the
+ <tt>LO16</tt>/<tt>HI16</tt> node transformations are used to manipulate the
+ input immediate (in this case, take the high or low 16-bits of the
+ immediate).</li>
<li>While the system does automate a lot, it still allows you to write custom
- C++ code to match special cases, in case there is something that is hard
- to express.</li>
+ C++ code to match special cases if there is something that is hard to
+ express.</li>
</ul>
-<p>
-While it has many strengths, the system currently has some limitations,
-primarily because it is a work in progress and is not yet finished:
-</p>
+<p>While it has many strengths, the system currently has some limitations,
+primarily because it is a work in progress and is not yet finished:</p>
<ul>
<li>Overall, there is no way to define or match SelectionDAG nodes that define
- multiple values (e.g. ADD_PARTS, LOAD, CALL, etc). This is the biggest
- reason that you currently still <i>have to</i> write custom C++ code for
- your instruction selector.</li>
-<li>There is no great way to support match complex addressing modes yet. In the
- future, we will extend pattern fragments to allow them to define multiple
- values (e.g. the four operands of the <a href="#x86_memory">X86 addressing
- mode</a>). In addition, we'll extend fragments so that a fragment can match
- multiple different patterns.</li>
+ multiple values (e.g. <tt>ADD_PARTS</tt>, <tt>LOAD</tt>, <tt>CALL</tt>,
+ etc). This is the biggest reason that you currently still <em>have to</em>
+ write custom C++ code for your instruction selector.</li>
+<li>There is no great way to support matching complex addressing modes yet. In
+ the future, we will extend pattern fragments to allow them to define
+ multiple values (e.g. the four operands of the <a href="#x86_memory">X86
+ addressing mode</a>, which are currently matched with custom C++ code).
+ In addition, we'll extend fragments so that a
+ fragment can match multiple different patterns.</li>
<li>We don't automatically infer flags like isStore/isLoad yet.</li>
<li>We don't automatically generate the set of supported registers and
- operations for the <a href="#"selectiondag_legalize>Legalizer</a> yet.</li>
+ operations for the <a href="#selectiondag_legalize">Legalizer</a> yet.</li>
<li>We don't have a way of tying in custom legalized nodes yet.</li>
</ul>
phase and assigns an order. The scheduler can pick an order depending on
various constraints of the machines (i.e. order for minimal register pressure or
try to cover instruction latencies). Once an order is established, the DAG is
-converted to a list of <a href="#machineinstr">MachineInstr</a>s and the
-Selection DAG is destroyed.
-</p>
+converted to a list of <tt><a href="#machineinstr">MachineInstr</a></tt>s and
+the SelectionDAG is destroyed.</p>
-<p>Note that this phase is logically seperate from the instruction selection
+<p>Note that this phase is logically separate from the instruction selection
phase, but is tied to it closely in the code because it operates on
SelectionDAGs.</p>
<ol>
<li>Optional function-at-a-time selection.</li>
-<li>Auto-generate entire selector from .td file.</li>
-</li>
+<li>Auto-generate entire selector from <tt>.td</tt> file.</li>
</ol>
</div>
<a name="ssamco">SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text"><p>To Be Written</p></div>
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="liveintervals">Live Intervals</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>Live Intervals are the ranges (intervals) where a variable is <i>live</i>.
+They are used by some <a href="#regalloc">register allocator</a> passes to
+determine if two or more virtual registers which require the same physical
+register are live at the same point in the program (i.e., they conflict). When
+this situation occurs, one virtual register must be <i>spilled</i>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="livevariable_analysis">Live Variable Analysis</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The first step in determining the live intervals of variables is to
+calculate the set of registers that are immediately dead after the
+instruction (i.e., the instruction calculates the value, but it is
+never used) and the set of registers that are used by the instruction,
+but are never used after the instruction (i.e., they are killed). Live
+variable information is computed for each <i>virtual</i> register and
+<i>register allocatable</i> physical register in the function. This
+is done in a very efficient manner because it uses SSA to sparsely
+compute lifetime information for virtual registers (which are in SSA
+form) and only has to track physical registers within a block. Before
+register allocation, LLVM can assume that physical registers are only
+live within a single basic block. This allows it to do a single,
+local analysis to resolve physical register lifetimes within each
+basic block. If a physical register is not register allocatable (e.g.,
+a stack pointer or condition codes), it is not tracked.</p>
+
+<p>Physical registers may be live in to or out of a function. Live in values
+are typically arguments in registers. Live out values are typically return
+values in registers. Live in values are marked as such, and are given a dummy
+"defining" instruction during live intervals analysis. If the last basic block
+of a function is a <tt>return</tt>, then it's marked as using all live out
+values in the function.</p>
+
+<p><tt>PHI</tt> nodes need to be handled specially, because the calculation
+of the live variable information from a depth first traversal of the CFG of
+the function won't guarantee that a virtual register used by the <tt>PHI</tt>
+node is defined before it's used. When a <tt>PHI</tt> node is encountered, only
+the definition is handled, because the uses will be handled in other basic
+blocks.</p>
+
+<p>For each <tt>PHI</tt> node of the current basic block, we simulate an
+assignment at the end of the current basic block and traverse the successor
+basic blocks. If a successor basic block has a <tt>PHI</tt> node and one of
+the <tt>PHI</tt> node's operands is coming from the current basic block,
+then the variable is marked as <i>alive</i> within the current basic block
+and all of its predecessor basic blocks, until the basic block with the
+defining instruction is encountered.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="liveintervals_analysis">Live Intervals Analysis</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>We now have the information available to perform the live intervals analysis
+and build the live intervals themselves. We start off by numbering the basic
+blocks and machine instructions. We then handle the "live-in" values. These
+are in physical registers, so the physical register is assumed to be killed by
+the end of the basic block. Live intervals for virtual registers are computed
+for some ordering of the machine instructions <tt>[1, N]</tt>. A live interval
+is an interval <tt>[i, j)</tt>, where <tt>1 <= i <= j < N</tt>, for which a
+variable is live.</p>
+
+<p><i><b>More to come...</b></i></p>
+
+</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="regalloc">Register Allocation</a>
</div>
-<div class="doc_text"><p>To Be Written</p></div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The <i>Register Allocation problem</i> consists in mapping a program
+<i>P<sub>v</sub></i>, that can use an unbounded number of virtual
+registers, to a program <i>P<sub>p</sub></i> that contains a finite
+(possibly small) number of physical registers. Each target architecture has
+a different number of physical registers. If the number of physical
+registers is not enough to accommodate all the virtual registers, some of
+them will have to be mapped into memory. These virtuals are called
+<i>spilled virtuals</i>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="regAlloc_represent">How registers are represented in LLVM</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>In LLVM, physical registers are denoted by integer numbers that
+normally range from 1 to 1023. To see how this numbering is defined
+for a particular architecture, you can read the
+<tt>GenRegisterNames.inc</tt> file for that architecture. For
+instance, by inspecting
+<tt>lib/Target/X86/X86GenRegisterNames.inc</tt> we see that the 32-bit
+register <tt>EAX</tt> is denoted by 15, and the MMX register
+<tt>MM0</tt> is mapped to 48.</p>
+
+<p>Some architectures contain registers that share the same physical
+location. A notable example is the X86 platform. For instance, in the
+X86 architecture, the registers <tt>EAX</tt>, <tt>AX</tt> and
+<tt>AL</tt> share the first eight bits. These physical registers are
+marked as <i>aliased</i> in LLVM. Given a particular architecture, you
+can check which registers are aliased by inspecting its
+<tt>RegisterInfo.td</tt> file. Moreover, the method
+<tt>TargetRegisterInfo::getAliasSet(p_reg)</tt> returns an array containing
+all the physical registers aliased to the register <tt>p_reg</tt>.</p>
+
+<p>Physical registers, in LLVM, are grouped in <i>Register Classes</i>.
+Elements in the same register class are functionally equivalent, and can
+be interchangeably used. Each virtual register can only be mapped to
+physical registers of a particular class. For instance, in the X86
+architecture, some virtuals can only be allocated to 8 bit registers.
+A register class is described by <tt>TargetRegisterClass</tt> objects.
+To discover if a virtual register is compatible with a given physical,
+this code can be used:
+</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+bool RegMapping_Fer::compatible_class(MachineFunction &mf,
+ unsigned v_reg,
+ unsigned p_reg) {
+ assert(TargetRegisterInfo::isPhysicalRegister(p_reg) &&
+ "Target register must be physical");
+ const TargetRegisterClass *trc = mf.getRegInfo().getRegClass(v_reg);
+ return trc->contains(p_reg);
+}
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+<p>Sometimes, mostly for debugging purposes, it is useful to change
+the number of physical registers available in the target
+architecture. This must be done statically, inside the
+<tt>TargetRegsterInfo.td</tt> file. Just <tt>grep</tt> for
+<tt>RegisterClass</tt>, the last parameter of which is a list of
+registers. Just commenting some out is one simple way to avoid them
+being used. A more polite way is to explicitly exclude some registers
+from the <i>allocation order</i>. See the definition of the
+<tt>GR</tt> register class in
+<tt>lib/Target/IA64/IA64RegisterInfo.td</tt> for an example of this
+(e.g., <tt>numReservedRegs</tt> registers are hidden.)</p>
+
+<p>Virtual registers are also denoted by integer numbers. Contrary to
+physical registers, different virtual registers never share the same
+number. The smallest virtual register is normally assigned the number
+1024. This may change, so, in order to know which is the first virtual
+register, you should access
+<tt>TargetRegisterInfo::FirstVirtualRegister</tt>. Any register whose
+number is greater than or equal to
+<tt>TargetRegisterInfo::FirstVirtualRegister</tt> is considered a virtual
+register. Whereas physical registers are statically defined in a
+<tt>TargetRegisterInfo.td</tt> file and cannot be created by the
+application developer, that is not the case with virtual registers.
+In order to create new virtual registers, use the method
+<tt>MachineRegisterInfo::createVirtualRegister()</tt>. This method will return a
+virtual register with the highest code.
+</p>
+
+<p>Before register allocation, the operands of an instruction are
+mostly virtual registers, although physical registers may also be
+used. In order to check if a given machine operand is a register, use
+the boolean function <tt>MachineOperand::isRegister()</tt>. To obtain
+the integer code of a register, use
+<tt>MachineOperand::getReg()</tt>. An instruction may define or use a
+register. For instance, <tt>ADD reg:1026 := reg:1025 reg:1024</tt>
+defines the registers 1024, and uses registers 1025 and 1026. Given a
+register operand, the method <tt>MachineOperand::isUse()</tt> informs
+if that register is being used by the instruction. The method
+<tt>MachineOperand::isDef()</tt> informs if that registers is being
+defined.</p>
+
+<p>We will call physical registers present in the LLVM bitcode before
+register allocation <i>pre-colored registers</i>. Pre-colored
+registers are used in many different situations, for instance, to pass
+parameters of functions calls, and to store results of particular
+instructions. There are two types of pre-colored registers: the ones
+<i>implicitly</i> defined, and those <i>explicitly</i>
+defined. Explicitly defined registers are normal operands, and can be
+accessed with <tt>MachineInstr::getOperand(int)::getReg()</tt>. In
+order to check which registers are implicitly defined by an
+instruction, use the
+<tt>TargetInstrInfo::get(opcode)::ImplicitDefs</tt>, where
+<tt>opcode</tt> is the opcode of the target instruction. One important
+difference between explicit and implicit physical registers is that
+the latter are defined statically for each instruction, whereas the
+former may vary depending on the program being compiled. For example,
+an instruction that represents a function call will always implicitly
+define or use the same set of physical registers. To read the
+registers implicitly used by an instruction, use
+<tt>TargetInstrInfo::get(opcode)::ImplicitUses</tt>. Pre-colored
+registers impose constraints on any register allocation algorithm. The
+register allocator must make sure that none of them is been
+overwritten by the values of virtual registers while still alive.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="regAlloc_howTo">Mapping virtual registers to physical registers</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>There are two ways to map virtual registers to physical registers (or to
+memory slots). The first way, that we will call <i>direct mapping</i>,
+is based on the use of methods of the classes <tt>TargetRegisterInfo</tt>,
+and <tt>MachineOperand</tt>. The second way, that we will call
+<i>indirect mapping</i>, relies on the <tt>VirtRegMap</tt> class in
+order to insert loads and stores sending and getting values to and from
+memory.</p>
+
+<p>The direct mapping provides more flexibility to the developer of
+the register allocator; however, it is more error prone, and demands
+more implementation work. Basically, the programmer will have to
+specify where load and store instructions should be inserted in the
+target function being compiled in order to get and store values in
+memory. To assign a physical register to a virtual register present in
+a given operand, use <tt>MachineOperand::setReg(p_reg)</tt>. To insert
+a store instruction, use
+<tt>TargetRegisterInfo::storeRegToStackSlot(...)</tt>, and to insert a load
+instruction, use <tt>TargetRegisterInfo::loadRegFromStackSlot</tt>.</p>
+
+<p>The indirect mapping shields the application developer from the
+complexities of inserting load and store instructions. In order to map
+a virtual register to a physical one, use
+<tt>VirtRegMap::assignVirt2Phys(vreg, preg)</tt>. In order to map a
+certain virtual register to memory, use
+<tt>VirtRegMap::assignVirt2StackSlot(vreg)</tt>. This method will
+return the stack slot where <tt>vreg</tt>'s value will be located. If
+it is necessary to map another virtual register to the same stack
+slot, use <tt>VirtRegMap::assignVirt2StackSlot(vreg,
+stack_location)</tt>. One important point to consider when using the
+indirect mapping, is that even if a virtual register is mapped to
+memory, it still needs to be mapped to a physical register. This
+physical register is the location where the virtual register is
+supposed to be found before being stored or after being reloaded.</p>
+
+<p>If the indirect strategy is used, after all the virtual registers
+have been mapped to physical registers or stack slots, it is necessary
+to use a spiller object to place load and store instructions in the
+code. Every virtual that has been mapped to a stack slot will be
+stored to memory after been defined and will be loaded before being
+used. The implementation of the spiller tries to recycle load/store
+instructions, avoiding unnecessary instructions. For an example of how
+to invoke the spiller, see
+<tt>RegAllocLinearScan::runOnMachineFunction</tt> in
+<tt>lib/CodeGen/RegAllocLinearScan.cpp</tt>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="regAlloc_twoAddr">Handling two address instructions</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>With very rare exceptions (e.g., function calls), the LLVM machine
+code instructions are three address instructions. That is, each
+instruction is expected to define at most one register, and to use at
+most two registers. However, some architectures use two address
+instructions. In this case, the defined register is also one of the
+used register. For instance, an instruction such as <tt>ADD %EAX,
+%EBX</tt>, in X86 is actually equivalent to <tt>%EAX = %EAX +
+%EBX</tt>.</p>
+
+<p>In order to produce correct code, LLVM must convert three address
+instructions that represent two address instructions into true two
+address instructions. LLVM provides the pass
+<tt>TwoAddressInstructionPass</tt> for this specific purpose. It must
+be run before register allocation takes place. After its execution,
+the resulting code may no longer be in SSA form. This happens, for
+instance, in situations where an instruction such as <tt>%a = ADD %b
+%c</tt> is converted to two instructions such as:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+%a = MOVE %b
+%a = ADD %a %c
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+<p>Notice that, internally, the second instruction is represented as
+<tt>ADD %a[def/use] %c</tt>. I.e., the register operand <tt>%a</tt> is
+both used and defined by the instruction.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="regAlloc_ssaDecon">The SSA deconstruction phase</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>An important transformation that happens during register allocation is called
+the <i>SSA Deconstruction Phase</i>. The SSA form simplifies many
+analyses that are performed on the control flow graph of
+programs. However, traditional instruction sets do not implement
+PHI instructions. Thus, in order to generate executable code, compilers
+must replace PHI instructions with other instructions that preserve their
+semantics.</p>
+
+<p>There are many ways in which PHI instructions can safely be removed
+from the target code. The most traditional PHI deconstruction
+algorithm replaces PHI instructions with copy instructions. That is
+the strategy adopted by LLVM. The SSA deconstruction algorithm is
+implemented in <tt>lib/CodeGen/PHIElimination.cpp</tt>. In order to
+invoke this pass, the identifier <tt>PHIEliminationID</tt> must be
+marked as required in the code of the register allocator.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="regAlloc_fold">Instruction folding</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p><i>Instruction folding</i> is an optimization performed during
+register allocation that removes unnecessary copy instructions. For
+instance, a sequence of instructions such as:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+%EBX = LOAD %mem_address
+%EAX = COPY %EBX
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+<p>can be safely substituted by the single instruction:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+%EAX = LOAD %mem_address
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+<p>Instructions can be folded with the
+<tt>TargetRegisterInfo::foldMemoryOperand(...)</tt> method. Care must be
+taken when folding instructions; a folded instruction can be quite
+different from the original instruction. See
+<tt>LiveIntervals::addIntervalsForSpills</tt> in
+<tt>lib/CodeGen/LiveIntervalAnalysis.cpp</tt> for an example of its use.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="regAlloc_builtIn">Built in register allocators</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The LLVM infrastructure provides the application developer with
+three different register allocators:</p>
+
+<ul>
+ <li><i>Simple</i> - This is a very simple implementation that does
+ not keep values in registers across instructions. This register
+ allocator immediately spills every value right after it is
+ computed, and reloads all used operands from memory to temporary
+ registers before each instruction.</li>
+ <li><i>Local</i> - This register allocator is an improvement on the
+ <i>Simple</i> implementation. It allocates registers on a basic
+ block level, attempting to keep values in registers and reusing
+ registers as appropriate.</li>
+ <li><i>Linear Scan</i> - <i>The default allocator</i>. This is the
+ well-know linear scan register allocator. Whereas the
+ <i>Simple</i> and <i>Local</i> algorithms use a direct mapping
+ implementation technique, the <i>Linear Scan</i> implementation
+ uses a spiller in order to place load and stores.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>The type of register allocator used in <tt>llc</tt> can be chosen with the
+command line option <tt>-regalloc=...</tt>:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code">
+<pre>
+$ llc -f -regalloc=simple file.bc -o sp.s;
+$ llc -f -regalloc=local file.bc -o lc.s;
+$ llc -f -regalloc=linearscan file.bc -o ln.s;
+</pre>
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="proepicode">Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion</a>
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="codeemit">Code Emission</a>
</div>
-
-
+<div class="doc_text"><p>To Be Written</p></div>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
<a name="codeemit_asm">Generating Assembly Code</a>
</div>
-
-<div class="doc_text">
-
-</div>
-
-
+<div class="doc_text"><p>To Be Written</p></div>
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
<a name="codeemit_bin">Generating Binary Machine Code</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <p>For the JIT or .o file writer</p>
+ <p>For the JIT or <tt>.o</tt> file writer</p>
</div>
</div>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="tailcallopt">Tail call optimization</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+ <p>Tail call optimization, callee reusing the stack of the caller, is currently supported on x86/x86-64 and PowerPC. It is performed if:
+ <ul>
+ <li>Caller and callee have the calling convention <tt>fastcc</tt>.</li>
+ <li>The call is a tail call - in tail position (ret immediately follows call and ret uses value of call or is void).</li>
+ <li>Option <tt>-tailcallopt</tt> is enabled.</li>
+ <li>Platform specific constraints are met.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </p>
+ <p>x86/x86-64 constraints:
+ <ul>
+ <li>No variable argument lists are used.</li>
+ <li>On x86-64 when generating GOT/PIC code only module-local calls (visibility = hidden or protected) are supported.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </p>
+ <p>PowerPC constraints:
+ <ul>
+ <li>No variable argument lists are used.</li>
+ <li>No byval parameters are used.</li>
+ <li>On ppc32/64 GOT/PIC only module-local calls (visibility = hidden or protected) are supported.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </p>
+ <p>Example:</p>
+ <p>Call as <tt>llc -tailcallopt test.ll</tt>.
+ <div class="doc_code">
+ <pre>
+declare fastcc i32 @tailcallee(i32 inreg %a1, i32 inreg %a2, i32 %a3, i32 %a4)
+
+define fastcc i32 @tailcaller(i32 %in1, i32 %in2) {
+ %l1 = add i32 %in1, %in2
+ %tmp = tail call fastcc i32 @tailcallee(i32 %in1 inreg, i32 %in2 inreg, i32 %in1, i32 %l1)
+ ret i32 %tmp
+}</pre>
+ </div>
+ </p>
+ <p>Implications of <tt>-tailcallopt</tt>:</p>
+ <p>To support tail call optimization in situations where the callee has more arguments than the caller a 'callee pops arguments' convention is used. This currently causes each <tt>fastcc</tt> call that is not tail call optimized (because one or more of above constraints are not met) to be followed by a readjustment of the stack. So performance might be worse in such cases.</p>
+ <p>On x86 and x86-64 one register is reserved for indirect tail calls (e.g via a function pointer). So there is one less register for integer argument passing. For x86 this means 2 registers (if <tt>inreg</tt> parameter attribute is used) and for x86-64 this means 5 register are used.</p>
+</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="x86">The X86 backend</a>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>
-The X86 code generator lives in the <tt>lib/Target/X86</tt> directory. This
-code generator currently targets a generic P6-like processor. As such, it
-produces a few P6-and-above instructions (like conditional moves), but it does
-not make use of newer features like MMX or SSE. In the future, the X86 backend
-will have sub-target support added for specific processor families and
-implementations.</p>
+<p>The X86 code generator lives in the <tt>lib/Target/X86</tt> directory. This
+code generator is capable of targeting a variety of x86-32 and x86-64
+processors, and includes support for ISA extensions such as MMX and SSE.
+</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>
-The following are the known target triples that are supported by the X86
-backend. This is not an exhaustive list, but it would be useful to add those
-that people test.
-</p>
+
+<p>The following are the known target triples that are supported by the X86
+backend. This is not an exhaustive list, and it would be useful to add those
+that people test.</p>
<ul>
<li><b>i686-pc-linux-gnu</b> - Linux</li>
<li><b>i386-unknown-freebsd5.3</b> - FreeBSD 5.3</li>
<li><b>i686-pc-cygwin</b> - Cygwin on Win32</li>
<li><b>i686-pc-mingw32</b> - MingW on Win32</li>
+<li><b>i386-pc-mingw32msvc</b> - MingW crosscompiler on Linux</li>
<li><b>i686-apple-darwin*</b> - Apple Darwin on X86</li>
</ul>
</div>
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="x86_cc">X86 Calling Conventions supported</a>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>The following target-specific calling conventions are known to backend:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li><b>x86_StdCall</b> - stdcall calling convention seen on Microsoft Windows
+platform (CC ID = 64).</li>
+<li><b>x86_FastCall</b> - fastcall calling convention seen on Microsoft Windows
+platform (CC ID = 65).</li>
+</ul>
+
+</div>
+
<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
<a name="x86_memory">Representing X86 addressing modes in MachineInstrs</a>
forming memory addresses of the following expression directly in integer
instructions (which use ModR/M addressing):</p>
+<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
- Base+[1,2,4,8]*IndexReg+Disp32
+Base + [1,2,4,8] * IndexReg + Disp32
</pre>
+</div>
<p>In order to represent this, LLVM tracks no less than 4 operands for each
-memory operand of this form. This means that the "load" form of 'mov' has the
-following <tt>MachineOperand</tt>s in this order:</p>
+memory operand of this form. This means that the "load" form of '<tt>mov</tt>'
+has the following <tt>MachineOperand</tt>s in this order:</p>
<pre>
Index: 0 | 1 2 3 4
</pre>
<p>Stores, and all other instructions, treat the four memory operands in the
-same way, in the same order.</p>
+same way and in the same order.</p>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>
-An instruction name consists of the base name, a default operand size, and a
+<p>An instruction name consists of the base name, a default operand size, and a
a character per operand with an optional special size. For example:</p>
<p>
</div>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<div class="doc_subsection">
+ <a name="ppc">The PowerPC backend</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The PowerPC code generator lives in the lib/Target/PowerPC directory. The
+code generation is retargetable to several variations or <i>subtargets</i> of
+the PowerPC ISA; including ppc32, ppc64 and altivec.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="ppc_abi">LLVM PowerPC ABI</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>LLVM follows the AIX PowerPC ABI, with two deviations. LLVM uses a PC
+relative (PIC) or static addressing for accessing global values, so no TOC (r2)
+is used. Second, r31 is used as a frame pointer to allow dynamic growth of a
+stack frame. LLVM takes advantage of having no TOC to provide space to save
+the frame pointer in the PowerPC linkage area of the caller frame. Other
+details of PowerPC ABI can be found at <a href=
+"http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/LowLevelABI/Articles/32bitPowerPC.html"
+>PowerPC ABI.</a> Note: This link describes the 32 bit ABI. The
+64 bit ABI is similar except space for GPRs are 8 bytes wide (not 4) and r13 is
+reserved for system use.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="ppc_frame">Frame Layout</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The size of a PowerPC frame is usually fixed for the duration of a
+function’s invocation. Since the frame is fixed size, all references into
+the frame can be accessed via fixed offsets from the stack pointer. The
+exception to this is when dynamic alloca or variable sized arrays are present,
+then a base pointer (r31) is used as a proxy for the stack pointer and stack
+pointer is free to grow or shrink. A base pointer is also used if llvm-gcc is
+not passed the -fomit-frame-pointer flag. The stack pointer is always aligned to
+16 bytes, so that space allocated for altivec vectors will be properly
+aligned.</p>
+<p>An invocation frame is laid out as follows (low memory at top);</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<table class="layout">
+ <tr>
+ <td>Linkage<br><br></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Parameter area<br><br></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Dynamic area<br><br></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Locals area<br><br></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Saved registers area<br><br></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr style="border-style: none hidden none hidden;">
+ <td><br></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>Previous Frame<br><br></td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The <i>linkage</i> area is used by a callee to save special registers prior
+to allocating its own frame. Only three entries are relevant to LLVM. The
+first entry is the previous stack pointer (sp), aka link. This allows probing
+tools like gdb or exception handlers to quickly scan the frames in the stack. A
+function epilog can also use the link to pop the frame from the stack. The
+third entry in the linkage area is used to save the return address from the lr
+register. Finally, as mentioned above, the last entry is used to save the
+previous frame pointer (r31.) The entries in the linkage area are the size of a
+GPR, thus the linkage area is 24 bytes long in 32 bit mode and 48 bytes in 64
+bit mode.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>32 bit linkage area</p>
+<table class="layout">
+ <tr>
+ <td>0</td>
+ <td>Saved SP (r1)</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>4</td>
+ <td>Saved CR</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>8</td>
+ <td>Saved LR</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>12</td>
+ <td>Reserved</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>16</td>
+ <td>Reserved</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>20</td>
+ <td>Saved FP (r31)</td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>64 bit linkage area</p>
+<table class="layout">
+ <tr>
+ <td>0</td>
+ <td>Saved SP (r1)</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>8</td>
+ <td>Saved CR</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>16</td>
+ <td>Saved LR</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>24</td>
+ <td>Reserved</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>32</td>
+ <td>Reserved</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td>40</td>
+ <td>Saved FP (r31)</td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The <i>parameter area</i> is used to store arguments being passed to a callee
+function. Following the PowerPC ABI, the first few arguments are actually
+passed in registers, with the space in the parameter area unused. However, if
+there are not enough registers or the callee is a thunk or vararg function,
+these register arguments can be spilled into the parameter area. Thus, the
+parameter area must be large enough to store all the parameters for the largest
+call sequence made by the caller. The size must also be minimally large enough
+to spill registers r3-r10. This allows callees blind to the call signature,
+such as thunks and vararg functions, enough space to cache the argument
+registers. Therefore, the parameter area is minimally 32 bytes (64 bytes in 64
+bit mode.) Also note that since the parameter area is a fixed offset from the
+top of the frame, that a callee can access its spilt arguments using fixed
+offsets from the stack pointer (or base pointer.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>Combining the information about the linkage, parameter areas and alignment. A
+stack frame is minimally 64 bytes in 32 bit mode and 128 bytes in 64 bit
+mode.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The <i>dynamic area</i> starts out as size zero. If a function uses dynamic
+alloca then space is added to the stack, the linkage and parameter areas are
+shifted to top of stack, and the new space is available immediately below the
+linkage and parameter areas. The cost of shifting the linkage and parameter
+areas is minor since only the link value needs to be copied. The link value can
+be easily fetched by adding the original frame size to the base pointer. Note
+that allocations in the dynamic space need to observe 16 byte alignment.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The <i>locals area</i> is where the llvm compiler reserves space for local
+variables.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The <i>saved registers area</i> is where the llvm compiler spills callee saved
+registers on entry to the callee.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="ppc_prolog">Prolog/Epilog</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>The llvm prolog and epilog are the same as described in the PowerPC ABI, with
+the following exceptions. Callee saved registers are spilled after the frame is
+created. This allows the llvm epilog/prolog support to be common with other
+targets. The base pointer callee saved register r31 is saved in the TOC slot of
+linkage area. This simplifies allocation of space for the base pointer and
+makes it convenient to locate programatically and during debugging.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- _______________________________________________________________________ -->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection">
+ <a name="ppc_dynamic">Dynamic Allocation</a>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p><i>TODO - More to come.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<hr>
<address>
src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!" /></a>
<a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
- <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
+ <a href="http://llvm.org">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
Last modified: $Date$
</address>