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authorBill Wendling <isanbard@gmail.com>2009-04-15 02:12:37 +0000
committerBill Wendling <isanbard@gmail.com>2009-04-15 02:12:37 +0000
commit801188066a71467fc031721903ab8986dd11acbe (patch)
tree0ee46a9914f3c2891411429adc8a0180dc945c04 /docs/CodeGenerator.html
parent61e08bd97fce1c84dd0e6f01f71d5f56f5f5ad0f (diff)
More obsessive reformatting. Fixed some validation errors.
git-svn-id: https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk@69130 91177308-0d34-0410-b5e6-96231b3b80d8
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-rw-r--r--docs/CodeGenerator.html2054
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diff --git a/docs/CodeGenerator.html b/docs/CodeGenerator.html
index 66d793dfa0..2471e9d20c 100644
--- a/docs/CodeGenerator.html
+++ b/docs/CodeGenerator.html
@@ -119,52 +119,51 @@
<div class="doc_text">
<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&mdash;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>
+ suite of reusable components for translating the LLVM internal representation
+ to the machine code for a specified target&mdash;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
-capture important properties about various aspects of the machine, independently
-of how they will be used. These interfaces are defined in
-<tt>include/llvm/Target/</tt>.</li>
-
-<li>Classes used to represent the <a href="#codegendesc">machine code</a> being
-generated for a target. These classes are intended to be abstract enough to
-represent the machine code for <i>any</i> target machine. These classes are
-defined in <tt>include/llvm/CodeGen/</tt>.</li>
-
-<li><a href="#codegenalgs">Target-independent algorithms</a> used to implement
-various phases of native code generation (register allocation, scheduling, stack
-frame representation, etc). This code lives in <tt>lib/CodeGen/</tt>.</li>
-
-<li><a href="#targetimpls">Implementations of the abstract target description
-interfaces</a> for particular targets. These machine descriptions make use of
-the components provided by LLVM, and can optionally provide custom
-target-specific passes, to build complete code generators for a specific target.
-Target descriptions live in <tt>lib/Target/</tt>.</li>
-
-<li><a href="#jit">The target-independent JIT components</a>. The LLVM JIT is
-completely target independent (it uses the <tt>TargetJITInfo</tt> structure to
-interface for target-specific issues. The code for the target-independent
-JIT lives in <tt>lib/ExecutionEngine/JIT</tt>.</li>
-
+ <li><a href="#targetdesc">Abstract target description</a> interfaces which
+ capture important properties about various aspects of the machine,
+ independently of how they will be used. These interfaces are defined in
+ <tt>include/llvm/Target/</tt>.</li>
+
+ <li>Classes used to represent the <a href="#codegendesc">machine code</a>
+ being generated for a target. These classes are intended to be abstract
+ enough to represent the machine code for <i>any</i> target machine. These
+ classes are defined in <tt>include/llvm/CodeGen/</tt>.</li>
+
+ <li><a href="#codegenalgs">Target-independent algorithms</a> used to implement
+ various phases of native code generation (register allocation, scheduling,
+ stack frame representation, etc). This code lives
+ in <tt>lib/CodeGen/</tt>.</li>
+
+ <li><a href="#targetimpls">Implementations of the abstract target description
+ interfaces</a> for particular targets. These machine descriptions make
+ use of the components provided by LLVM, and can optionally provide custom
+ target-specific passes, to build complete code generators for a specific
+ target. Target descriptions live in <tt>lib/Target/</tt>.</li>
+
+ <li><a href="#jit">The target-independent JIT components</a>. The LLVM JIT is
+ completely target independent (it uses the <tt>TargetJITInfo</tt>
+ structure to interface for target-specific issues. The code for the
+ target-independent JIT lives in <tt>lib/ExecutionEngine/JIT</tt>.</li>
</ol>
-<p>
-Depending on which part of the code generator you are interested in working on,
-different pieces of this will be useful to you. In any case, you should be
-familiar with the <a href="#targetdesc">target description</a> and <a
-href="#codegendesc">machine code representation</a> classes. If you want to add
-a backend for a new target, you will need to <a href="#targetimpls">implement the
-target description</a> classes for your new target and understand the <a
-href="LangRef.html">LLVM code representation</a>. If you are interested in
-implementing a new <a href="#codegenalgs">code generation algorithm</a>, it
-should only depend on the target-description and machine code representation
-classes, ensuring that it is portable.
-</p>
+<p>Depending on which part of the code generator you are interested in working
+ on, different pieces of this will be useful to you. In any case, you should
+ be familiar with the <a href="#targetdesc">target description</a>
+ and <a href="#codegendesc">machine code representation</a> classes. If you
+ want to add a backend for a new target, you will need
+ to <a href="#targetimpls">implement the target description</a> classes for
+ your new target and understand the <a href="LangRef.html">LLVM code
+ representation</a>. If you are interested in implementing a
+ new <a href="#codegenalgs">code generation algorithm</a>, it should only
+ depend on the target-description and machine code representation classes,
+ ensuring that it is portable.</p>
</div>
@@ -176,27 +175,27 @@ classes, ensuring that it is portable.
<div class="doc_text">
<p>The two pieces of the LLVM code generator are the high-level interface to the
-code generator and the set of reusable components that can be used to build
-target-specific backends. The two most important interfaces (<a
-href="#targetmachine"><tt>TargetMachine</tt></a> and <a
-href="#targetdata"><tt>TargetData</tt></a>) are the only ones that are
-required to be defined for a backend to fit into the LLVM system, but the others
-must be defined if the reusable code generator components are going to be
-used.</p>
+ code generator and the set of reusable components that can be used to build
+ target-specific backends. The two most important interfaces
+ (<a href="#targetmachine"><tt>TargetMachine</tt></a>
+ and <a href="#targetdata"><tt>TargetData</tt></a>) are the only ones that are
+ required to be defined for a backend to fit into the LLVM system, but the
+ others must be defined if the reusable code generator components are going to
+ be used.</p>
<p>This design has two important implications. The first is that LLVM can
-support completely non-traditional code generation targets. For example, the C
-backend does not require register allocation, instruction selection, or any of
-the other standard components provided by the system. As such, it only
-implements these two interfaces, and does its own thing. Another example of a
-code generator like this is a (purely hypothetical) backend that converts LLVM
-to the GCC RTL form and uses GCC to emit machine code for a target.</p>
+ support completely non-traditional code generation targets. For example, the
+ C backend does not require register allocation, instruction selection, or any
+ of the other standard components provided by the system. As such, it only
+ implements these two interfaces, and does its own thing. Another example of
+ a code generator like this is a (purely hypothetical) backend that converts
+ LLVM to the GCC RTL form and uses GCC to emit machine code for a target.</p>
-<p>This design also implies that it is possible to design and
-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: FPGAs for example.</p>
+<p>This design also implies that it is possible to design and 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: FPGAs for example.</p>
</div>
@@ -207,75 +206,73 @@ LLVM machine description model: FPGAs for example.</p>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>The LLVM target-independent code generator is designed to support efficient and
-quality code generation for standard register-based microprocessors. Code
-generation in this model is divided into the following stages:</p>
+<p>The LLVM target-independent code generator is designed to support efficient
+ and quality code generation for standard register-based microprocessors.
+ Code generation in this model is divided into the following stages:</p>
<ol>
-<li><b><a href="#instselect">Instruction Selection</a></b> - This phase
-determines an efficient way to express the input LLVM code in the target
-instruction set.
-This stage produces the initial code for the program in the target instruction
-set, then makes use of virtual registers in SSA form and physical registers that
-represent any required register assignments due to target constraints or calling
-conventions. This step turns the LLVM code into a DAG of target
-instructions.</li>
-
-<li><b><a href="#selectiondag_sched">Scheduling and Formation</a></b> - This
-phase takes the DAG of target instructions produced by the instruction selection
-phase, determines an ordering of the instructions, then emits the instructions
-as <tt><a href="#machineinstr">MachineInstr</a></tt>s with that ordering. Note
-that we describe this in the <a href="#instselect">instruction selection
-section</a> because it operates on a <a
-href="#selectiondag_intro">SelectionDAG</a>.
-</li>
-
-<li><b><a href="#ssamco">SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations</a></b> - This
-optional stage consists of a series of machine-code optimizations that
-operate on the SSA-form produced by the instruction selector. Optimizations
-like modulo-scheduling or peephole optimization work here.
-</li>
-
-<li><b><a href="#regalloc">Register Allocation</a></b> - The
-target code is transformed from an infinite virtual register file in SSA form
-to the concrete register file used by the target. This phase introduces spill
-code and eliminates all virtual register references from the program.</li>
-
-<li><b><a href="#proepicode">Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion</a></b> - Once the
-machine code has been generated for the function and the amount of stack space
-required is known (used for LLVM alloca's and spill slots), the prolog and
-epilog code for the function can be inserted and "abstract stack location
-references" can be eliminated. This stage is responsible for implementing
-optimizations like frame-pointer elimination and stack packing.</li>
-
-<li><b><a href="#latemco">Late Machine Code Optimizations</a></b> - Optimizations
-that operate on "final" machine code can go here, such as spill code scheduling
-and peephole optimizations.</li>
-
-<li><b><a href="#codeemit">Code Emission</a></b> - The final stage actually
-puts out the code for the current function, either in the target assembler
-format or in machine code.</li>
-
+ <li><b><a href="#instselect">Instruction Selection</a></b> &mdash; This phase
+ determines an efficient way to express the input LLVM code in the target
+ instruction set. This stage produces the initial code for the program in
+ the target instruction set, then makes use of virtual registers in SSA
+ form and physical registers that represent any required register
+ assignments due to target constraints or calling conventions. This step
+ turns the LLVM code into a DAG of target instructions.</li>
+
+ <li><b><a href="#selectiondag_sched">Scheduling and Formation</a></b> &mdash;
+ This phase takes the DAG of target instructions produced by the
+ instruction selection phase, determines an ordering of the instructions,
+ then emits the instructions
+ as <tt><a href="#machineinstr">MachineInstr</a></tt>s with that ordering.
+ Note that we describe this in the <a href="#instselect">instruction
+ selection section</a> because it operates on
+ a <a href="#selectiondag_intro">SelectionDAG</a>.</li>
+
+ <li><b><a href="#ssamco">SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations</a></b> &mdash;
+ This optional stage consists of a series of machine-code optimizations
+ that operate on the SSA-form produced by the instruction selector.
+ Optimizations like modulo-scheduling or peephole optimization work
+ here.</li>
+
+ <li><b><a href="#regalloc">Register Allocation</a></b> &mdash; The target code
+ is transformed from an infinite virtual register file in SSA form to the
+ concrete register file used by the target. This phase introduces spill
+ code and eliminates all virtual register references from the program.</li>
+
+ <li><b><a href="#proepicode">Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion</a></b> &mdash; Once
+ the machine code has been generated for the function and the amount of
+ stack space required is known (used for LLVM alloca's and spill slots),
+ the prolog and epilog code for the function can be inserted and "abstract
+ stack location references" can be eliminated. This stage is responsible
+ for implementing optimizations like frame-pointer elimination and stack
+ packing.</li>
+
+ <li><b><a href="#latemco">Late Machine Code Optimizations</a></b> &mdash;
+ Optimizations that operate on "final" machine code can go here, such as
+ spill code scheduling and peephole optimizations.</li>
+
+ <li><b><a href="#codeemit">Code Emission</a></b> &mdash; The final stage
+ actually puts out the code for the current function, either in the target
+ assembler format or in machine code.</li>
</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
-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
-aggressive optimization (used when generating code offline) by allowing
-components of varying levels of sophistication to be used for any step of
-compilation.</p>
+ 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 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
-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>
+ 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>
</div>
-
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="tablegen">Using TableGen for target description</a>
@@ -284,24 +281,23 @@ needed.</p>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>The target description classes require a detailed description of the target
-architecture. These target descriptions often have a large amount of common
-information (e.g., an <tt>add</tt> instruction is almost identical to a
-<tt>sub</tt> instruction).
-In order to allow the maximum amount of commonality to be factored out, the LLVM
-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>
+ architecture. These target descriptions often have a large amount of common
+ information (e.g., an <tt>add</tt> instruction is almost identical to a
+ <tt>sub</tt> instruction). In order to allow the maximum amount of
+ commonality to be factored out, the LLVM 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>
<p>As LLVM continues to be developed and refined, we plan to move more and more
-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
-surface area of the code generator that needs to be understood before someone
-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>
+ 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 surface area of the code generator that needs to be understood before
+ someone 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>
@@ -314,18 +310,18 @@ to a new interface.</p>
<div class="doc_text">
<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
-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>
+ <tt>include/llvm/Target</tt> directory) provide an abstract description of
+ the 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>All of the target description classes (except the <tt><a
-href="#targetdata">TargetData</a></tt> class) are designed to be subclassed by
-the concrete target implementation, and have virtual methods implemented. To
-get to these implementations, the <tt><a
-href="#targetmachine">TargetMachine</a></tt> class provides accessors that
-should be implemented by the target.</p>
+<p>All of the target description classes (except the
+ <tt><a href="#targetdata">TargetData</a></tt> class) are designed to be
+ subclassed by the concrete target implementation, and have virtual methods
+ implemented. To get to these implementations, the
+ <tt><a href="#targetmachine">TargetMachine</a></tt> class provides accessors
+ that should be implemented by the target.</p>
</div>
@@ -337,19 +333,18 @@ should be implemented by the target.</p>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>The <tt>TargetMachine</tt> class provides virtual methods that are used to
-access the target-specific implementations of the various target description
-classes via the <tt>get*Info</tt> methods (<tt>getInstrInfo</tt>,
-<tt>getRegisterInfo</tt>, <tt>getFrameInfo</tt>, etc.). This class is
-designed to be specialized by
-a concrete target implementation (e.g., <tt>X86TargetMachine</tt>) which
-implements the various virtual methods. The only required target description
-class is the <a href="#targetdata"><tt>TargetData</tt></a> class, but if the
-code generator components are to be used, the other interfaces should be
-implemented as well.</p>
+ access the target-specific implementations of the various target description
+ classes via the <tt>get*Info</tt> methods (<tt>getInstrInfo</tt>,
+ <tt>getRegisterInfo</tt>, <tt>getFrameInfo</tt>, etc.). This class is
+ designed to be specialized by a concrete target implementation
+ (e.g., <tt>X86TargetMachine</tt>) which implements the various virtual
+ methods. The only required target description class is
+ the <a href="#targetdata"><tt>TargetData</tt></a> class, but if the code
+ generator components are to be used, the other interfaces should be
+ implemented as well.</p>
</div>
-
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="targetdata">The <tt>TargetData</tt> class</a>
@@ -358,11 +353,11 @@ implemented as well.</p>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>The <tt>TargetData</tt> class is the only required target description class,
-and it is the only class that is not extensible (you cannot derived a new
-class from it). <tt>TargetData</tt> specifies information about how the target
-lays out memory for structures, the alignment requirements for various data
-types, the size of pointers in the target, and whether the target is
-little-endian or big-endian.</p>
+ and it is the only class that is not extensible (you cannot derived a new
+ class from it). <tt>TargetData</tt> specifies information about how the
+ target lays out memory for structures, the alignment requirements for various
+ data types, the size of pointers in the target, and whether the target is
+ little-endian or big-endian.</p>
</div>
@@ -374,14 +369,18 @@ little-endian or big-endian.</p>
<div class="doc_text">
<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:</p>
+ selectors primarily to describe how LLVM code should be lowered to
+ SelectionDAG 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 <tt>setcc</tt> operations</li>
- <li>the type to use for shift amounts</li>
+ <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 <tt>setcc</tt> operations,</li>
+
+ <li>the type to use for shift amounts, and</li>
+
<li>various high-level characteristics, like whether it is profitable to turn
division by a constant into a multiplication sequence</li>
</ul>
@@ -395,32 +394,30 @@ operations. Among other things, this class indicates:</p>
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>The <tt>TargetRegisterInfo</tt> class 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 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>
+ 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 whether one register overlaps with another).
-</p>
+ <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>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
-selector has an associated register class. When the register allocator runs, it
-replaces virtual registers with a physical register in the set.</p>
+ 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
+ selector has an associated register class. When the register allocator runs,
+ it replaces virtual registers with a physical register in the set.</p>
-<p>
-The target-specific implementations of these classes is auto-generated from a <a
-href="TableGenFundamentals.html">TableGen</a> description of the register file.
-</p>
+<p>The target-specific implementations of these classes is auto-generated from
+ a <a href="TableGenFundamentals.html">TableGen</a> description of the
+ register file.</p>
</div>
@@ -430,14 +427,16 @@ href="TableGenFundamentals.html">TableGen</a> description of the register file.
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <p>The <tt>TargetInstrInfo</tt> class is used to describe the machine
- instructions supported by the target. It is essentially an array of
- <tt>TargetInstrDescriptor</tt> objects, each of which describes one
- 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>
+
+<p>The <tt>TargetInstrInfo</tt> class is used to describe the machine
+ instructions supported by the target. It is essentially an array of
+ <tt>TargetInstrDescriptor</tt> objects, each of which describes one
+ 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>
+
</div>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
@@ -446,12 +445,14 @@ href="TableGenFundamentals.html">TableGen</a> description of the register file.
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <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
- 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>
+
+<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 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>
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
@@ -460,11 +461,13 @@ href="TableGenFundamentals.html">TableGen</a> description of the register file.
</div>
<div class="doc_text">
- <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>
+
+<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>
+
</div>
@@ -474,11 +477,13 @@ href="TableGenFundamentals.html">TableGen</a> description of the register file.
</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>
+
+<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>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
@@ -490,15 +495,15 @@ href="TableGenFundamentals.html">TableGen</a> description of the register file.
<div class="doc_text">
<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 <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>
+ 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 <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>
@@ -510,34 +515,34 @@ non-SSA form.</p>
<div class="doc_text">
<p>Target machine instructions are represented as instances of the
-<tt>MachineInstr</tt> class. This class is an extremely abstract way of
-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 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
-<tt><a href="#targetinstrinfo">TargetInstrInfo</a></tt> class.</p>
-
-<p>The operands of a machine instruction can be of several different types:
-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>
+ <tt>MachineInstr</tt> class. This class is an extremely abstract way of
+ 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 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
+ <tt><a href="#targetinstrinfo">TargetInstrInfo</a></tt> class.</p>
+
+<p>The operands of a machine instruction can be of several different types: 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
-all register definitions come before the register uses, even on architectures
-that are normally printed in other orders. For example, the SPARC add
-instruction: "<tt>add %i1, %i2, %i3</tt>" adds the "%i1", and "%i2" registers
-and stores the result into the "%i3" register. In the LLVM code generator,
-the operands should be stored as "<tt>%i3, %i1, %i2</tt>": with the destination
-first.</p>
+ all register definitions come before the register uses, even on architectures
+ that are normally printed in other orders. For example, the SPARC add
+ instruction: "<tt>add %i1, %i2, %i3</tt>" adds the "%i1", and "%i2" registers
+ and stores the result into the "%i3" register. In the LLVM code generator,
+ the operands should be stored as "<tt>%i3, %i1, %i2</tt>": with the
+ destination first.</p>
-<p>Keeping destination (definition) operands at the beginning of the operand
-list has several advantages. In particular, the debugging printer will print
-the instruction like this:</p>
+<p>Keeping destination (definition) operands at the beginning of the operand
+ list has several advantages. In particular, the debugging printer will print
+ the instruction like this:</p>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
@@ -545,9 +550,8 @@ the instruction like this:</p>
</pre>
</div>
-<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>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>
</div>
@@ -559,9 +563,9 @@ operand.</p>
<div class="doc_text">
<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>
+ 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>
<div class="doc_code">
<pre>
@@ -588,11 +592,11 @@ BuildMI(MBB, X86::JNE, 1).addMBB(&amp;MBB);
</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>
+ 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>
@@ -610,13 +614,14 @@ MI.addReg(Reg, MachineOperand::Def);
<div class="doc_text">
<p>One important issue that the code generator needs to be aware of is the
-presence of fixed registers. In particular, there are often places in the
-instruction stream where the register allocator <em>must</em> arrange for a
-particular value to be in a particular register. This can occur due to
-limitations of the instruction set (e.g., the X86 can only do a 32-bit divide
-with the <tt>EAX</tt>/<tt>EDX</tt> registers), or external factors like calling
-conventions. In any case, the instruction selector should emit code that
-copies a virtual register into or out of a physical register when needed.</p>
+ presence of fixed registers. In particular, there are often places in the
+ instruction stream where the register allocator <em>must</em> arrange for a
+ particular value to be in a particular register. This can occur due to
+ limitations of the instruction set (e.g., the X86 can only do a 32-bit divide
+ with the <tt>EAX</tt>/<tt>EDX</tt> registers), or external factors like
+ calling conventions. In any