[cfe-commits] r114101 - /cfe/trunk/www/compatibility.html

[Chris Lattner]

Author: lattner
Date: Thu Sep 16 13:17:55 2010
New Revision: 114101

URL: http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project?rev=114101&view=rev
Log:
add a compatibility note about vector builtins

Modified:
    cfe/trunk/www/compatibility.html

Modified: cfe/trunk/www/compatibility.html
URL: http://llvm.org/viewvc/llvm-project/cfe/trunk/www/compatibility.html?rev=114101&r1=114100&r2=114101&view=diff
==============================================================================
--- cfe/trunk/www/compatibility.html (original)
+++ cfe/trunk/www/compatibility.html Thu Sep 16 13:17:55 2010
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@
   <li><a href="#c">C compatibility</a>
     <ul>
       <li><a href="#inline">C99 inline functions</a></li>
+      <li><a href="#vector_builtins">"missing" vector __builtin functions</a></li>
       <li><a href="#lvalue-cast">Lvalue casts</a></li>
       <li><a href="#blocks-in-protected-scope">Jumps to within <tt>__block</tt> variable scope</a></li>
     </ul>
@@ -114,6 +115,32 @@
   be changed.</li>
 </ul>
 
+
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+<h3 id="vector_builtins">"missing" vector __builtin functions</h3>
+<!-- ======================================================================= -->
+
+<p>The Intel and AMD manuals document a number "<tt><*mmintrin.h></tt>"
+header files, which define a standardized API for accessing vector operations
+on X86 CPUs.  These functions have names like <tt>_mm_xor_ps</tt> and
+<tt>_mm256_addsub_pd</tt>.  Compilers have leeway to implement these functions
+however they want.  Since Clang supports an excellent set of <a 
+href="../docs/LanguageExtensions.html#vectors">native vector operations</a>,
+the Clang headers implement these interfaces in terms of the native vector 
+operations.
+</p>
+
+<p>In contrast, GCC implements these functions mostly as a 1-to-1 mapping to
+builtin function calls, like <tt>__builtin_ia32_paddw128</tt>.  These builtin
+functions are an internal implementation detail of GCC, and are not portable to
+the Intel compiler, the Microsoft compiler, or Clang.  If you get build errors
+mentioning these, the fix is simple: switch to the *mmintrin.h functions.</p>
+
+<p>The same issue occurs for NEON and Altivec for the ARM and PowerPC
+architectures respectively.  For these, make sure to use the <arm_neon.h>
+and <altivec.h> headers.</p>
+
+
 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
 <h3 id="lvalue-cast">Lvalue casts</h3>
 <!-- ======================================================================= -->