Anirudh Prasad via llvm-dev
2021-Jun-22 15:54 UTC
[llvm-dev] RFC: New mechanism for hard register operands to inline asm
Hi All, We wanted to bring up the possibility of introducing a new inline asm constraint for all targets. This new constraint is meant to be used as a replacement for the register asm construct. Part of the motivation behind this proposal is to come up with something that is a bit nicer and more obvious to use. The new inline asm constraint would be as follows: {“<register-name>”} (operand name) ... The constraint will try to tie the particular inline asm operand to a specific register. This is also proposed as an RFC in the GCC mailing lists (https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2021-June/236269.html). We would ideally like to maintain consistency with GCC. We have an example in the IBM Z kernel source code, where we believe an introduction of such an inline asm constraint would be beneficial. Example: turning this source: ``` int diag8_response(int cmdlen, char *response, int *rlen) { register unsigned long reg2 asm ("2") = (addr_t) cpcmd_buf; register unsigned long reg3 asm ("3") = (addr_t) response; register unsigned long reg4 asm ("4") = cmdlen | 0x40000000L; register unsigned long reg5 asm ("5") = *rlen; /* <-- */ asm volatile( " diag %2,%0,0x8\n" " brc 8,1f\n" " agr %1,%4\n" "1:\n" : "+d" (reg4), "+d" (reg5) : "d" (reg2), "d" (reg3), "d" (*rlen): "cc"); *rlen = reg5; return reg4; } ``` into this: ``` int diag8_response(int cmdlen, char *response, int *rlen) { unsigned long len = cmdlen | 0x40000000L; asm volatile( " diag %2,%0,0x8\n" " brc 8,1f\n" " agr %1,%4\n" "1:\n" : "+{r4}" (len), "+{r5}" (*rlen) : "{r2}" ((addr_t)cpcmd_buf), "{r3}" ((addr_t)response), "d" (*rlen): "cc"); return len; } ``` Why we believe the introduction of this new “hard register” inline asm constraint to be useful? 1. It is more flexible than the register asm construct since a user does not need to be concerned with which registers are previously mapped to which variable(s). 2. The documentation of the register asm construct (https:/ /gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Register-Variables.html) specifies that function calls might clobber registers assigned with "register asm". Using this new inline asm constraint ensures that the operand is assigned to a particular register only in the context of the inline asm call. 3. One register asm variable cannot be used for 2 different inline assembly statements if the value is expected in different hard registers. We are very interested in hearing opinions on the above proposal! Thanks and Best Regards, Anirudh Prasad
Jacob Lifshay via llvm-dev
2021-Jun-22 21:12 UTC
[llvm-dev] RFC: New mechanism for hard register operands to inline asm
On Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 08:54 Anirudh Prasad via llvm-dev < llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:> Hi All, > > We wanted to bring up the possibility of introducing a new inline asm > constraint for all targets. This new constraint is meant to be used as a > replacement for the register asm construct. Part of the motivation behind > this proposal is to come up with something that is a bit nicer and more > obvious to use. The new inline asm constraint would be as follows: > > {“<register-name>”} (operand name) ... >This is somewhat similar to Rust's new inline assembly syntax: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/blob/master/text/2873-inline-asm.md#explicit-register-operands We are very interested in hearing opinions on the above proposal! I think this is a good idea! Jacob -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/attachments/20210622/817cb616/attachment.html>
James Y Knight via llvm-dev
2021-Jun-22 22:01 UTC
[llvm-dev] RFC: New mechanism for hard register operands to inline asm
On Tue, Jun 22, 2021 at 11:54 AM Anirudh Prasad via llvm-dev < llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:> Hi All, > > We wanted to bring up the possibility of introducing a new inline asm > constraint for all targets. This new constraint is meant to be used as a > replacement for the register asm construct. Part of the motivation behind > this proposal is to come up with something that is a bit nicer and more > obvious to use. The new inline asm constraint would be as follows: > > {“<register-name>”} (operand name) ... > > The constraint will try to tie the particular inline asm operand to a > specific register. > > This is also proposed as an RFC in the GCC mailing lists ( > https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2021-June/236269.html). We would > ideally like to maintain consistency with GCC. >Sounds good -- if GCC also implements it. Behind the scenes, Clang effectively already implements this proposal -- the register-asm-variables are just a strange frontend spelling for hard register constraints. They do nothing else, and in particular, they do NOT necessarily live in that register other than when being passed to/from an inline asm. So, we'd be adding a second (more obvious) spelling to do the exact same thing we already implement. IMO it would not be worth it if this new syntax was unique to Clang, but is if both clang and gcc implement it. Why we believe the introduction of this new “hard register” inline asm> constraint to be useful? > > 1. It is more flexible than the register asm construct since a user does > not need to be concerned with which registers are previously mapped to > which variable(s). > 2. The documentation of the register asm construct (https:/ / > gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Local-Register-Variables.html) specifies that > function calls might clobber registers assigned with "register asm". Using > this new inline asm constraint ensures that the operand is assigned to a > particular register only in the context of the inline asm call. >This advantage doesn't apply to Clang, because the asm-register variables are already assigned to the named register only in the context of an inline asm call. 3. One register asm variable cannot be used for 2 different inline assembly> statements if the value is expected in different hard registers. > > We are very interested in hearing opinions on the above proposal! >-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.llvm.org/pipermail/llvm-dev/attachments/20210622/bc8a0343/attachment.html>
David Chisnall via llvm-dev
2021-Jun-23 08:39 UTC
[llvm-dev] RFC: New mechanism for hard register operands to inline asm
On 22/06/2021 16:54, Anirudh Prasad via llvm-dev wrote:> Hi All, > > We wanted to bring up the possibility of introducing a new inline asm constraint for all targets. This new constraint is meant to be used as a replacement for the register asm construct. Part of the motivation behind this proposal is to come up with something that is a bit nicer and more obvious to use. The new inline asm constraint would be as follows: > > {“<register-name>”} (operand name) ... > > The constraint will try to tie the particular inline asm operand to a specific register. > > This is also proposed as an RFC in the GCC mailing lists (https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2021-June/236269.html). We would ideally like to maintain consistency with GCC.It looks as if you're proposing a new representation of *C* inline assembly, not LLVM IR inline assembly. As such, the only LLVM component that need to be modified to support it is Clang. If you post this on the Clang developers list, you are likely to get feedback from the right set of people. David