[LLVMbugs] [Bug 587] NEW: [ppc] Reference to a constant pool in simple functions shouldn't spill LR reg to the stack

[bugzilla-daemon at cs.uiuc.edu]

http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=587

           Summary: [ppc] Reference to a constant pool in simple functions
                    shouldn't spill LR reg to the stack
           Product: libraries
           Version: 1.4
          Platform: Macintosh
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P2
         Component: Backend: PowerPC
        AssignedTo: unassignedbugs at nondot.org
        ReportedBy: sabre at nondot.org


Consider a function like this:

float foo(float X) { return X + 1234.4123f; }

The FP constant ends up in the constant pool, so we need to get the LR register.
 This ends up producing code like this:

_foo:
.LBB_foo_0:     ; entry
        mflr r11
***     stw r11, 8(r1)
        bl "L00000$pb"
"L00000$pb":
        mflr r2
        addis r2, r2, ha16(.CPI_foo_0-"L00000$pb")
        lfs f0, lo16(.CPI_foo_0-"L00000$pb")(r2)
        fadds f1, f1, f0
***     lwz r11, 8(r1)
        mtlr r11
        blr

This is functional, but there is no reason to spill the LR register all the way
to the stack (the two marked instrs): spilling it to a GPR is quite enough.

Implementing this will require some codegen improvements.  Nate writes:

"So basically what we need to support the "no stack frame save and restore" is a
generalization of the LR optimization to "callee-save regs".

Currently, we have LR marked as a callee-save reg.  The register allocator sees
that it's callee save, and spills it directly to the stack.

Ideally, something like this would happen:

LR would be in a separate register class from the GPRs. The class of LR would be
marked "unspillable".  When the register allocator came across an unspillable
reg, it would ask "what is the best class to copy this into that I *can* spill"
If it gets a class back, which it will in this case (the gprs), it grabs a free
register of that class.  If it is then later necessary to spill that reg, so be it.
"

This makes an incredible amount of sense to me. :)

-Chris



------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are on the CC list for the bug, or are watching someone who is.