LLVM code generator can model sequences of instructions as MachineInstr + bundles. A MI bundle can model a VLIW group / pack which contains an + arbitrary number of parallel instructions. It can also be used to model + a sequential list of instructions (potentially with data dependencies) that + cannot be legally separated (e.g. ARM Thumb2 IT blocks).
+ +Conceptually a MI bundle is a MI with a number of other MIs nested within: +
+ ++-------------- +| Bundle | --------- +-------------- \ + | ---------------- + | | MI | + | ---------------- + | | + | ---------------- + | | MI | + | ---------------- + | | + | ---------------- + | | MI | + | ---------------- + | +-------------- +| Bundle | -------- +-------------- \ + | ---------------- + | | MI | + | ---------------- + | | + | ---------------- + | | MI | + | ---------------- + | | + | ... + | +-------------- +| Bundle | -------- +-------------- \ + | + ... ++
MI bundle support does not change the physical representations of + MachineBasicBlock and MachineInstr. All the MIs (including top level and + nested ones) are stored as sequential list of MIs. The "bundled" MIs are + marked with the 'InsideBundle' flag. A top level MI with the special BUNDLE + opcode is used to represent the start of a bundle. It's legal to mix BUNDLE + MIs with indiviual MIs that are not inside bundles nor represent bundles. +
+ +MachineInstr passes should operate on a MI bundle as a single unit. Member + methods have been taught to correctly handle bundles and MIs inside bundles. + The MachineBasicBlock iterator has been modified to skip over bundled MIs to + enforce the bundle-as-a-single-unit concept. An alternative iterator + instr_iterator has been added to MachineBasicBlock to allow passes to + iterate over all of the MIs in a MachineBasicBlock, including those which + are nested inside bundles. The top level BUNDLE instruction must have the + correct set of register MachineOperand's that represent the cumulative + inputs and outputs of the bundled MIs.
+ +Packing / bundling of MachineInstr's should be done as part of the register + allocation super-pass. More specifically, the pass which determines what + MIs should be bundled together must be done after code generator exits SSA + form (i.e. after two-address pass, PHI elimination, and copy coalescing). + Bundles should only be finalized (i.e. adding BUNDLE MIs and input and + output register MachineOperands) after virtual registers have been + rewritten into physical registers. This requirement eliminates the need to + add virtual register operands to BUNDLE instructions which would effectively + double the virtual register def and use lists.
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