[llvm-dev] how to simplify FP ops with an undef operand?

Friedman, Eli via llvm-dev llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
Wed Feb 28 15:06:41 PST 2018


I'm pretty sure that isn't what nnan is supposed to mean. If the result 
of nnan math were undefined in the sense of "undef", programs using nnan 
could have undefined behavior if the result is used in certain ways 
which would not be undefined for any actual float value (e.g. converting 
the result to a string), which seems like a surprising result.  And I 
don't think we gain any useful optimization power from saying we can 
fold to undef instead of something else.

So I think it's supposed to say "the result is not specified" or 
something (so an nnan operation which would produce a nan can instead 
produce any value that isn't undef/poison).

-Eli

On 2/28/2018 2:45 PM, Sanjay Patel wrote:
> Ah, thanks for explaining. So given that any of these ops will return 
> NaN with a NaN operand, let's choose the undef operand value to be 
> NaN. That means we can fold all of these to a NaN constant in the 
> general case.
>
> But if we have 'nnan' FMF, then we can fold harder to undef?
> nnan - Allow optimizations to assume the arguments and result are not 
> NaN. Such optimizations are required to retain defined behavior over 
> NaNs, but the value of the result is undefined.
>
> On Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 3:25 PM, Kaylor, Andrew 
> <andrew.kaylor at intel.com <mailto:andrew.kaylor at intel.com>> wrote:
>
>     What I’m saying is that if we have one operand that is not an
>     undef value then that operand might be NaN and if it is then the
>     result must be NaN. So while it may be true that we don’t have a
>     NaN, it is not true that we definitely do not have a NaN in the
>     example. This is analogous to the example in the language
>     reference where it says “%A = or %X, undef” -> “%A = undef” is
>     unsafe because any bits that are set in %A must be set in the
>     result. If any floating point operand is NaN dynamically, then the
>     result must be NaN.
>
>     I don’t believe it’s accurate to say that NaN is “morally
>     equivalent” to undef. There are some similarities, but the
>     important difference is that NaN always has well defined behavior
>     with a specific correct result. There is, perhaps, a sense in
>     which it is analogous to a poison value, but for the purposes of
>     reasoning about the correctness of floating point operations I
>     think it’s best to be pedantic about treating it as the specific
>     value that it is.
>
>     Finally, I was pretty sure you knew that fdiv by zero wasn’t
>     undefined. I just wanted to clarify that the “?” in your comment
>     was indicating that the assertion in the language reference was
>     questionable as opposed to this point being in any way actually
>     uncertain.
>
>     *From:*Sanjay Patel [mailto:spatel at rotateright.com
>     <mailto:spatel at rotateright.com>]
>     *Sent:* Wednesday, February 28, 2018 1:05 PM
>     *To:* Kaylor, Andrew <andrew.kaylor at intel.com
>     <mailto:andrew.kaylor at intel.com>>
>     *Cc:* llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
>     <mailto:llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>>; Nuno Lopes <nunoplopes at sapo.pt
>     <mailto:nunoplopes at sapo.pt>>; Stephen Canon <scanon at apple.com
>     <mailto:scanon at apple.com>>; David Majnemer
>     <david.majnemer at gmail.com <mailto:david.majnemer at gmail.com>>; John
>     Regehr <regehr at cs.utah.edu <mailto:regehr at cs.utah.edu>>; Sanjoy
>     Das <sanjoy at playingwithpointers.com
>     <mailto:sanjoy at playingwithpointers.com>>; Friedman, Eli
>     <efriedma at codeaurora.org <mailto:efriedma at codeaurora.org>>; Matt
>     Arsenault <arsenm2 at gmail.com <mailto:arsenm2 at gmail.com>>;
>     Kreitzer, David L <david.l.kreitzer at intel.com
>     <mailto:david.l.kreitzer at intel.com>>
>
>
>     *Subject:* Re: how to simplify FP ops with an undef operand?
>
>     Correct - NaN is not undef in IR. But we don't have a NaN in this
>     example. We have its moral equivalent in LLVM - an uninitialized
>     value, undef.
>
>     So we're not introducing any extra uncertainty by propagating the
>     undef. The backend can choose whatever encoding of undef makes
>     sense when lowering?
>
>     And yes, I don't know why FP-div-by-zero would ever be UB. I think
>     that text in the LangRef should be removed regardless of any other
>     outcome here.
>
>     On Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 1:18 PM, Kaylor, Andrew
>     <andrew.kaylor at intel.com <mailto:andrew.kaylor at intel.com>> wrote:
>
>         Why is NaN “just ‘undef’ in IR”? NaN is a specific value with
>         well-defined behavior. I would think that unless the no-NaNs
>         flag is used we need to preserve the behavior of NaNs.
>
>         *From:*Sanjay Patel [mailto:spatel at rotateright.com
>         <mailto:spatel at rotateright.com>]
>         *Sent:* Wednesday, February 28, 2018 12:08 PM
>         *To:* Kaylor, Andrew <andrew.kaylor at intel.com
>         <mailto:andrew.kaylor at intel.com>>
>         *Cc:* llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org
>         <mailto:llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>>; Nuno Lopes
>         <nunoplopes at sapo.pt <mailto:nunoplopes at sapo.pt>>; Stephen
>         Canon <scanon at apple.com <mailto:scanon at apple.com>>; David
>         Majnemer <david.majnemer at gmail.com
>         <mailto:david.majnemer at gmail.com>>; John Regehr
>         <regehr at cs.utah.edu <mailto:regehr at cs.utah.edu>>; Sanjoy Das
>         <sanjoy at playingwithpointers.com
>         <mailto:sanjoy at playingwithpointers.com>>; Friedman, Eli
>         <efriedma at codeaurora.org <mailto:efriedma at codeaurora.org>>;
>         Matt Arsenault <arsenm2 at gmail.com <mailto:arsenm2 at gmail.com>>
>         *Subject:* Re: how to simplify FP ops with an undef operand?
>
>         Yes, if %x is a NaN, we should expect that NaN is propagated.
>
>         I'm still not sure what to do here. We can take comfort in
>         knowing that whatever we do is likely an improvement over the
>         current situation though. :)
>
>         That's because the code in InstSimplify is inconsistent with
>         the LangRef:
>         http://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html#undefined-values
>         <http://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html#undefined-values> (UB for
>         fdiv by 0?)
>
>         ...and both of those are inconsistent with undef handling in SDAG.
>
>         Let me propose an alternate interpretation:
>
>         1. The meaning of snan as written in IEEE754-2008 is:
>         "Signaling NaNs afford representations for uninitialized
>         variables..."
>         2. That matches our intent with 'undef' here in IR as written
>         in the LangRef: "unspecified bit-pattern".
>         3. The current fdiv transform is actually correct (any SNaN
>         UB/trapping commentary is irrelevant because we assume
>         exceptions are off by default).
>
>         The undef operand represents an uninitialized variable, and
>         the result of any FP op with that uninitialized variable is
>         well-defined: it's another NaN which is just 'undef' in IR.
>
>         On Wed, Feb 28, 2018 at 11:43 AM, Kaylor, Andrew
>         <andrew.kaylor at intel.com <mailto:andrew.kaylor at intel.com>> wrote:
>
>             I’m not sure the transformation happening with fdiv is
>             correct. If we have “%y = fdiv float %x, undef” and %x is
>             a NaN then the result will be NaN for any value of the
>             undef, right? So if I understand the undef rules correctly
>             (never a certainty) then we can’t safely replace the
>             expression with undef. We could, I think, replace it with
>             “%y = %x” though. I think the same is true for fadd, fsub,
>             fmul, and frem.
>
>             -Andy
>
>             %y = fadd float %x, undef
>
>             Can we simplify this?
>
>             Currently in IR, we do nothing for fadd/fsub/fmul. For
>             fdiv/frem, we propagate undef. The code comment for
>             fdiv/frem says:
>             "the undef could be a snan"
>
>             If that's correct, then shouldn't it be the same for
>             fadd/fsub/fmul? But this can't be correct because we
>             support targets that don't raise exceptions...and even
>             targets that raise exceptions do not trap by default on snan?
>
>

-- 
Employee of Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc.
Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. is a member of Code Aurora Forum, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project

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