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- <title>LLVM 1.6 Release Notes</title>
+ <title>LLVM 1.7cvs Release Notes</title>
</head>
<body>
-<div class="doc_title">LLVM 1.6 Release Notes</div>
+<div class="doc_title">LLVM 1.7 Release Notes</div>
<ol>
<li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM compiler
-infrastructure, release 1.6. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any
+infrastructure, release 1.7. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any
known problems and major improvements from the previous release. The most
up-to-date version of this document can be found on the <a
-href="http://llvm.org/releases/1.6/">LLVM 1.6 web site</a>. If you are
+href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>. If you are
not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there because
this document may be updated after the release.</p>
<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
-<a name="newfeatures">New Features in LLVM 1.6</a>
+<a name="newfeatures">New Features in LLVM 1.7cvs</a>
</div>
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="iselgen">Instruction Selector
-Generation from Target Description</a></div>
-
-<div class="doc_text">
-<p>LLVM now includes support for auto-generating large portions of the
-instruction selectors from target descriptions. This allows us to
-write patterns in the target .td file, instead of writing lots of
-nasty C++ code. Most of the PowerPC instruction selector is now
-generated from the PowerPC target description files and other targets
-are adding support that will be live for LLVM 1.7.</p>
-
-<p>For example, here are some patterns used by the PowerPC backend. A
-floating-point multiply then subtract instruction (FMSUBS):</p>
-
-<div class="doc_code"><p>
-<tt>(set F4RC:$FRT, (fsub (fmul F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRC), F4RC:$FRB))</tt>
-</p></div>
-
-<p>Exclusive-or by 16-bit immediate (XORI):</p>
-
-<div class="doc_code"><p>
-<tt>(set GPRC:$dst, (xor GPRC:$src1, immZExt16:$src2))</tt>
-</p></div>
-
-<p>Exclusive-or by 16-bit immediate shifted right 16-bits (XORIS):</p>
-
-<div class="doc_code"><p>
-<tt>(set GPRC:$dst, (xor GPRC:$src1, imm16Shifted:$src2))</tt>
-</p></div>
-
-<p>With these definitions, we teach the code generator how to combine these two
-instructions to xor an abitrary 32-bit immediate with the following
-definition. The first line specifies what to match (a xor with an arbitrary
-immediate) the second line specifies what to produce:</p>
-
-<div class="doc_code"><p>
-<pre>def : Pat<(xor GPRC:$in, imm:$imm),
- (XORIS (XORI GPRC:$in, (LO16 imm:$imm)), (HI16 imm:$imm))>;
-</pre>
-</p></div>
-
-</div>
-
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="sched">Instruction Scheduling
-Support</a></div>
-
<div class="doc_text">
-
-<p>Instruction selectors using the refined <a
-href="CodeGenerator.html#instselect">instruction selection framework</a> can now
-use a simple pre-pass scheduler included with LLVM 1.6. This scheduler is
-currently simple (cannot be configured much by the targets), but will be
-extended in the future.</p>
-</div>
-
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="subtarget">Code Generator Subtarget
-Support</a></div>
-
-<div class="doc_text">
-<p>It is now straight-forward to parameterize a target implementation, and
-provide a mapping from CPU names to sets of target parameters. LLC now supports
-a <tt>-mcpu=cpu</tt> option that lets you choose a subtarget by CPU name: use
-"<tt>llvm-as < /dev/null | llc -march=XXX -mcpu=help</tt>" to get a list of
-supported CPUs for target "XXX". It also provides a
-<tt>-mattr=+attr1,-attr2</tt> option that can be used to control individual
-features of a target (the previous command will list available features as
-well).</p>
-
-<p>This functionality is nice when you want tell LLC something like "compile to
-code that is specialized for the PowerPC G5, but doesn't use altivec code. In
-this case, using "<tt>llc -march=ppc32 -mcpu=g5 -mattr=-altivec</tt>".</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
-<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="jitlock">Other New Features</a></div>
-
-<div class="doc_text">
-<ol>
- <li>The JIT now uses mutexes to protect its internal data structures. This
- allows multi-threaded programs to be run from the JIT or interpreter without
- corruption of the internal data structures. See
- <a href="http://llvm.org/PR418">PR418</a> and
- <a href="http://llvm.org/PR540">PR540</a> for the details.
- </li>
- <li>LLVM on Win32 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR614">no longer requires sed,
- flex, or bison when compiling with Visual C++</a>.</li>
- <li>The llvm-test suite can now use the NAG Fortran to C compiler to compile
- SPEC FP programs if available (allowing us to test all of SPEC'95 &
- 2000).</li>
- <li>When bugpoint is grinding away and the user hits ctrl-C, it now
- gracefully stops and gives what it has reduced so far, instead of
- giving up completely. In addition, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR576">the JIT
- debugging mode of bugpoint is much faster</a>.</li>
- <li>LLVM now includes Xcode project files in the llvm/Xcode directory.</li>
- <li>LLVM now supports Mac OS X on Intel.</li>
- <li>LLVM now builds cleanly with GCC 4.1.</li>
-</ol>
-</div>
-
-<!--=========================================================================-->
-<div class="doc_subsection">
-<a name="codequality">Code Quality Improvements in LLVM 1.6</a>
-</div>
-
-<div class="doc_text">
-<ol>
- <li>The <tt>-globalopt</tt> pass can now statically evaluate C++ static
- constructors when they are simple enough. For example, it can
- now statically initialize "<tt>struct X { int a; X() : a(4) {} } g;</tt>".
- </li>
- <li>The Loop Strength Reduction pass has been completely rewritten, is far
- more aggressive, and is turned on by default in the RISC targets. On PPC,
- we find that it often speeds up programs from 10-40% depending on the
- program.</li>
- <li>The code produced when exception handling is enabled is far more
- efficient in some cases, particularly on Mac OS X.</li>
-</ol>
+<ul>
+<li>New C front-end.</li>
+<li>New SPARC backend.</li>
+<li>Inline assembly support.</li>
+</ul>
</div>
-
<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
-<a name="codequality">Code Generator Improvements in LLVM 1.6</a>
+<a name="changes">Significant changes in LLVM 1.7cvs</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
-<ol>
-<li>The Alpha backend is substantially more stable and robust than in LLVM 1.5.
- For example, it now fully supports varargs functions. The Alpha backend
- also now features beta JIT support.</li>
-<li>The code generator contains a new component, the DAG Combiner. This allows
- us to optimize lowered code (e.g. after 64-bit operations have been lowered
- to use 32-bit registers on 32-bit targets) and do fine-grained bit-twiddling
- optimizations for the backend.</li>
-<li>The SelectionDAG infrastructure is far more capable and mature, able to
- handle many new target peculiarities in a target-independent way.</li>
-<li>The default <a href="http://llvm.org/PR547">register allocator is now far
- faster on some testcases</a>,
- particularly on targets with a large number of registers (e.g. IA64
- and PPC).</li>
-</ol>
-</div>
-
-<!--=========================================================================-->
-<div class="doc_subsection">
-<a name="bugfix">Significant Bugs Fixed in LLVM 1.6</a>
+<ul>
+<li>Removed the llvm.readport/llvm.writeport/llvm.readio/llvm.writeio
+ intrinsics.</li>
+<li>Separated the other intrinsics based on type.</li>
+</ul>
</div>
-<div class="doc_text">
-<ol>
- <li>A vast number of bugs have been fixed in the PowerPC backend and in
- llvm-gcc when configured for Mac OS X (particularly relating to ABI
- issues). For example:
- <a href="http://llvm.org/PR603">PR449</a>,
- <a href="http://llvm.org/PR594">PR594</a>,
- <a href="http://llvm.org/PR603">PR603</a>,
- <a href="http://llvm.org/PR609">PR609</a>,
- <a href="http://llvm.org/PR630">PR630</a>,
- <a href="http://llvm.org/PR643">PR643</a>,
- and several others without bugzilla bugs.</li>
- <li>Several bugs in tail call support have been fixed.</li>
- <li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR608">configure does not correctly detect gcc
- version on cygwin</a>.</li>
- <li>Many many other random bugs have been fixed. Query <a
- href="http://llvm.org/bugs">our bugzilla</a> with a target of 1.6 for more
- information.</li>
-</ol>
-</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
<div class="doc_section">
<ul>
<li>The following passes are incomplete or buggy, and may be removed in future
- releases: <tt>-cee, -pre</tt></li>
+ releases: <tt>-cee</tt></li>
<li>The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool is in a very early stage of development, but can
be used to step through programs and inspect the stack.</li>
-<li>The SparcV8 and IA64 code generators are experimental.</li>
+<li>The IA64 code generator is experimental.</li>
<li>The Alpha JIT is experimental.</li>
</ul>
<div class="doc_subsubsection">Bugs</div>
<div class="doc_text">
+
+These bugs are known for the old front-end. The new GCC-4-based C front-end
+suffers from none of these.
+
<ul>
<li>C99 Variable sized arrays do not release stack memory when they go out of
scope. Thus, the following program may run out of stack space:
<ul>
-<li>Inline assembly is not yet supported.</li>
-
<li>"long double" is transformed by the front-end into "double". There is no
support for floating point data types of any size other than 32 and 64
bits.</li>
<b>Supported:</b> <tt>format</tt>, <tt>format_arg</tt>, <tt>non_null</tt>,
<tt>noreturn</tt>, <tt>constructor</tt>, <tt>destructor</tt>,
- <tt>unused</tt>,
+ <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>used</tt>,
<tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>warn_unused_result</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
<b>Ignored:</b> <tt>noinline</tt>,
<tt>always_inline</tt>, <tt>pure</tt>, <tt>const</tt>, <tt>nothrow</tt>,
<tt>malloc</tt>, <tt>no_instrument_function</tt>, <tt>cdecl</tt><br>
- <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>used</tt>, <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>,
+ <b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>section</tt>, <tt>alias</tt>,
<tt>visibility</tt>, <tt>regparm</tt>, <tt>stdcall</tt>,
<tt>fastcall</tt>, all other target specific attributes</li>
Specifying attributes of variables.<br>
<b>Supported:</b> <tt>cleanup</tt>, <tt>common</tt>, <tt>nocommon</tt>,
<tt>deprecated</tt>, <tt>transparent_union</tt>,
- <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
+ <tt>unused</tt>, <tt>used</tt>, <tt>weak</tt><br>
<b>Unsupported:</b> <tt>aligned</tt>, <tt>mode</tt>, <tt>packed</tt>,
<tt>section</tt>, <tt>shared</tt>, <tt>tls_model</tt>,
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
-<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR566">Memory Mapped I/O Intrinsics do not fence
-memory</a></li>
+<li>None yet</li>
</ul>
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
- <a name="sparcv8">Known problems with the SPARC-V8 back-end</a>
+ <a name="sparc">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
-<li>Many features are still missing (e.g. support for 64-bit integer
-arithmetic). This back-end is in pre-beta state.</li>
+<li>None yet.</li>
</ul>
</div>