[LLVMdev] Loop vectorizer

[Hal Finkel]

----- Original Message -----
> Hi Preston!
> 
> >
> > I'd start by making a plan (a design!) with goals and stuff.
> > Publish it so we can see what you mean by "vectorization".
> 
> I will send a separate email later, but here is a quick overview. I
> see the vectorizer having four main components:
> 
> 1. Preparation passes: If-conversion, loop transformations, etc.
> 
> 2. Cost model - This unit decides on the best vectorization factor
> (could be 1).
> 
> 3. Legality check - This unit checks if it is *legal* (from a
> correctness point of view) to vectorize the program. This is target
> independent. Also, this unit needs to describe which transformation
> are needed to make this loop vectorizeable. For example: if-conversion
> is required if the control flow is not uniform for all iterations of
> the loop.
> 
> 4. Vectorization - This is where the actual widening of the
> instructions happen. Every time we improve #3 by detecting more
> vectorizeable loops, we need to add the mechanism for actually
> generating code for it. For example, we can detect reduction
> variables, but we also need to be able to generate code for them.
> 
> > I.e., do you mean for real vector machines, a la Cray, or for
> > the packed media instructions that are currently so popular?
> 
> I am mostly interested in generating code for the popular SIMD cpus
> (X86, ARM, PPC, etc).
> 
> > What's your idea for finding vectorizable loops?
> 
> I started with a very very basic check because I needed to start
> somewhere. We will need to design a mode advanced check.
> 
> > Do you have a plan for xforms to increase the amount of
> > vectorization?
> 
> Yes. We will need to implement a predication phase and to design the
> interaction with other loop transformations. Also, this will have to
> work well with the cost model. We also need to think of a good way to
> detect early on if the transformations are likely to be effective,
> because we currently don't have a good way of undoing compiler
> transformations.
> 
> I think that a simple if-converter will be a good place to start. What
> do you think ?

Quick comment: IIRC, Ralf Karrenberg has already implemented this (as part of his WVF project: https://github.com/karrenberg/wfv/tree/llvm_30). It might be worthwhile to work on cleaning up his implementation instead of starting from scratch.

 -Hal

> 
> > I've written a dependence analyzer that ought to be suitable
> > (if it isn't, we should fix it).
> 
> I know :) Yes, this is really good. Any serious loop transformation
> and multi-dimentional array vectorization will need this. I am glad
> that you are working on this and I do want to use it.
> 
> In the near future, I plan to work on the code generation cost-model
> aspects.
> 
> The vectorization legality check that I wrote is very simple and very
> conservative. It will be great if you could contribute in that area.
> 
> Thanks,
> Nadav
> 
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Preston
> 
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-- 
Hal Finkel
Postdoctoral Appointee
Leadership Computing Facility
Argonne National Laboratory