[cfe-dev] "SPIR" – A Standard Portable IR for OpenCL Kernel Language

Chris Lattner clattner at apple.com
Thu Sep 6 14:00:44 PDT 2012


On Sep 6, 2012, at 12:05 PM, "Ouriel, Boaz" <boaz.ouriel at intel.com> wrote:
> **** Introduction ****
> Lately, Khronos has ratified a new provisional specification which is called SPIR. 
> This specification standardizes an intermediate representation for the OpenCL kernel language.
> It is based on LLVM infrastructure and this is why I am sending this mail to the LLVM mailing list. 
> Khronos members would like to initiate a review on the specification with the LLVM community. 

Hi Boaz,

I'm glad that this is finally becoming public.  As you know, I have many concerns with designs in this space, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys ended up with.  I think that it would be a great thing for OpenCL to have a reference implementation in the mainline LLVM compiler.

As for your approach, I'm really glad that you're looking towards making incremental proposals for LLVM extensions, instead of dropping one big set of changes on the community and looking for approval.  

> **** Where can I find SPIR specification? ****
> Khronos is now working on making SPIR specification available through the Khronos website. 
> Once available, we will send a link to the document in this mailing list.

Sounds good, I strongly encourage you to start individual threads on the mailing list for each of your sub-topics.  Just the topic of 32/64-bit portability or endianness will have a lot to be discussed!  I'm glad that you're open to changes to your proposed design - the last time I talked with SPIR folks, it sounded like some changes may be necessary (but again, I haven't been involved with SPIR at all, so you've certainly made progress!).

-Chris



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