[cfe-dev] [RFC] Opt-in vector of bool type

[Richard Sandiford via cfe-dev]

Simon Moll via cfe-dev <cfe-dev at lists.llvm.org> writes:
> We would like to extend Clang to allow 'bool' as a valid vector element
> type in C/C++ code for select targets.
>
> This is the natural type for SIMD masks and would facilitate clean SIMD
> intrinsic declarations in C/C++ code.
> Vectors of i1 are supported on IR level and below down to many SIMD
> ISAs, such as AVX512 or the VE target (NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA).
> We understand the historical reasons for not supporting this (gcc
> complicance).
> However, this would be an opt-in feature and toolchains/targets that do
> not want this will be unaffected by the change.
>
> Looking forward to your feedback.

FWIW, this would also be useful for SVE predicates when generating
fixed-length code.

It's convenient that both GCC and clang reject boolean element types
as thing stand, e.g.:

    typedef bool foo __attribute__((vector_size(32)));

I think this means that it should be possible to treat packed boolean
vectors as a pure extension to what exists today.  Compatibility with
older compilers shouldn't be a concern, it would just be a new feature.

GCC is a moving target too, and I don't know of any reason in principle
why GCC would never support this.  A lot of the necessary plumbing
already exists.

So far the principle has been that vector_size should work the same
way regardless of the current target, with the compiler deciding
how best to implement the code.  I think it would be good to follow
that for any extension too, rather than making the feature opt-in and
introducing a new target dependency.

Thanks,
Richard