[clang] [clang-tools-extra] [llvm] [DirectX][docs] Architecture and design philosophy of DXIL support (PR #78221)

[Justin Bogner via cfe-commits]

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+===============================================
+Architecture and Design of DXIL Support in LLVM
+===============================================
+
+.. contents::
+   :local:
+
+.. toctree::
+   :hidden:
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+LLVM supports reading and writing the `DirectX Intermediate Language.
+<https://github.com/microsoft/DirectXShaderCompiler/blob/main/docs/DXIL.rst>`_,
+or DXIL. DXIL is essentially LLVM 3.7 era bitcode with some
+restrictions and various semantically important operations and
+metadata.
+
+LLVM's implementation philosophy for DXIL support is to treat DXIL as
+merely a representation format as much as possible. When reading DXIL,
+we should translate everyting to generic LLVM constructs when
+possible. Similarly, we should introduce DXIL-specific constructs as
+late as possible in the process of lowering to the format.
+
+There are three places to look for DXIL related code in LLVM: The
+`DirectX` backend, for writing DXIL; The `DXILUpgrade` pass, for
+reading; and in library code that is shared between writing and
+reading. We'll describe these in reverse order.
+
+Common Code for Reading and Writing
+===================================
+
+There's quite a bit of logic that needs to be shared between reading
+and writing DXIL in order to avoid code duplication. While we don't
+have a hard and fast rule about where such code should live, there are
+generally three sensible places. Simple definitions of enums and
+values that must stay fixed to match DXIL's ABI can be found in
+`Support/DXILABI.h`, utilities to translate bidirectionally between
+DXIL and modern LLVM constructs live in `lib/Transforms/Utils`, and
+more analyses that are needed to derive or preserve information are
+implemented as typical `lib/Analysis` passes.
+
+The DXILUpgrade Pass
+====================
+
+Translating DXIL to LLVM IR takes advantage of the fact that DXIL is
+compatible with LLVM 3.7 bitcode, and that modern LLVM is capable of
+"upgrading" older bitcode into modern IR. Simply relying on the
+bitcode upgrade process isn't sufficient though, since that leaves a
+number of DXIL specific constructs around. Thus, we have the
+`DXILUpgrade` pass to transform DXIL operations to LLVM operations and
+smooth over differences in metadata representation.
+
+The DirectX Backend
+===================
+
+The DirectX backend lowers LLVM IR into DXIL. As we're transforming to
+an intermediate format rather than a specific ISA, this backend does
+not follow the instruction selection patterns you might be familiar
+with from other backends. There are two parts to lowering DXIL - a set
+of passes that mutate various constructs into a form that matches how
+DXIL represents those constructs, followed by a limited bitcode
+"downgrader pass".
+
+Before emitting DXIL, the DirectX backend needs to modify the LLVM IR
+such that external operations, types, and metadata is represented in
+the way that DXIL expects. For example, `DXILOpLowering` translates
+intrinsics into `dx.op` calls. It's encouraged to implement parts of
+the DXIL lowering as these kinds of IR to IR passes when possible, as
+that means that they can be easily tested with `opt` and `FileCheck`
+without the need for external tooling.
+
+The second part of DXIL emission is more or less an LLVM bitcode
+downgrader. We need to emit bitcode that matches the LLVM 3.7
+representation. For this, we have `DXILWriter`, which is an alternate
+version of LLVM's `BitcodeWriter`. At present, this is able to
+leverage LLVM's current bitcode libraries to do a lot of the work, but
+it's possible that at some point in the future it will need to be
+completely separate as modern LLVM bitcode evolves.
+
+Testing
+=======
+
+A lot of DXIL testing can be done with typical IR to IR tests using
+`opt` and `FileCheck`, since a lot of the support is implemented in
+terms of IR level passes as described in the previous sections. You
+can see examples of this in `llvm/test/CodeGen/DirectX` as well as
+`llvm/test/Transforms/DXILUpgrade`, and this type of testing should be
+leveraged as much as possible.
+
+However, when it comes to testing the DXIL format itself, IR passes
+are insufficient for testing. For now, the best option we have
+available is using the DXC project's tools in order to round trip.
+These tests are currently found in `test/tools/dxil-dis` and are only
+available if the `LLVM_INCLUDE_DXIL_TESTS` cmake option is set. Note
+that we do not currently have the equivalent testing set up for the
+DXIL reading path.
+
+In the future, we will also want to round trip using the DXIL writing
----------------
bogner wrote:

I've reworded this to "As soon as we are able"

https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/78221