[llvm-commits] CVS: llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.html
Chris Lattner
lattner at cs.uiuc.edu
Sat Oct 29 00:07:21 PDT 2005
Changes in directory llvm/docs:
ReleaseNotes.html updated: 1.337 -> 1.338
---
Log message:
First hack-and-slash on the release notes. Comments and improvements welcome
---
Diffs of the changes: (+168 -24)
ReleaseNotes.html | 192 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
1 files changed, 168 insertions(+), 24 deletions(-)
Index: llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.html
diff -u llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.html:1.337 llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.html:1.338
--- llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.html:1.337 Sat Oct 29 00:14:01 2005
+++ llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.html Sat Oct 29 02:07:09 2005
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
</ol>
<div class="doc_author">
- <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">LLVM Team</a><p>
+ <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a><p>
</div>
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
@@ -35,12 +35,12 @@
infrastructure, release 1.6. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including any
known problems and major improvements from the previous release. The most
up-to-date version of this document can be found on the <a
-href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/1.6/">LLVM 1.6 web site</a>. If you are
+href="http://llvm.org/releases/1.6/">LLVM 1.6 web site</a>. If you are
not reading this on the LLVM web pages, you should probably go there because
this document may be updated after the release.</p>
<p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
-release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">main LLVM
+release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
href="http://mail.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM developer's mailing
list</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
<p>Note that if you are reading this file from CVS or the main LLVM web page,
this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the current one. To see
the release notes for the current or previous releases, see the <a
-href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
+href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
</div>
@@ -60,11 +60,12 @@
<div class="doc_text">
-<p>This is the seventh public release of the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure.</p>
-
-<p>LLVM 1.6 is known to correctly compile a wide range of C and C++ programs,
-includes bug fixes for those problems found since the 1.5 release, and includes
-a large number of new features and enhancements, described below.</p>
+<p>This is the seventh public release of the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure. This
+release incorporates a large number of enhancements and additions (primarily in
+the code generator), which combine to improve the quality of the code generated
+by LLVM by up to 30% in some cases. This release is also the first release to
+have first-class support for Mac OS/X: all of the major bugs have been shaken
+out and it is now as well supported as Linux on X86.</p>
</div>
@@ -73,14 +74,106 @@
<a name="newfeatures">New Features in LLVM 1.6</a>
</div>
+<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="iselgen">Instruction Selector
+Generation from Target Description</a></div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>LLVM now includes support for auto-generating large portions of the
+instruction selectors from target descriptions. This allows us to
+write patterns in the target .td file, instead of writing lots of
+nasty C++ code. Most of the PowerPC instruction selector is now
+generated from the PowerPC target description files and other targets
+are adding support that will be live for LLVM 1.7.</p>
+
+<p>For example, here are some patterns used by the PowerPC backend. A
+floating-point multiply then subtract instruction (FMSUBS):</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code"><p>
+<tt>(set F4RC:$FRT, (fsub (fmul F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRC), F4RC:$FRB))</tt>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Exclusive-or by 16-bit immediate (XORI):</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code"><p>
+<tt>(set GPRC:$dst, (xor GPRC:$src1, immZExt16:$src2))</tt>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Exclusive-or by 16-bit immediate shifted right 16-bits (XORIS):</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code"><p>
+<tt>(set GPRC:$dst, (xor GPRC:$src1, imm16Shifted:$src2))</tt>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>With these definitions, we teach the code generator how to combine these two
+instructions to xor an abitrary 32-bit immediate with the following
+definition. The first line specifies what to match (a xor with an arbitrary
+immediate) the second line specifies what to produce:</p>
+
+<div class="doc_code"><p>
+<pre>def : Pat<(xor GPRC:$in, imm:$imm),
+ (XORIS (XORI GPRC:$in, (LO16 imm:$imm)), (HI16 imm:$imm))>;
+</pre>
+</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="sched">Instruction Scheduling
+Support</a></div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+
+<p>Instruction selectors using the refined <a
+href="CodeGenerator.html#instselect">instruction selection framework</a> can now
+use a simple pre-pass scheduler included with LLVM 1.6. This scheduler is
+currently simple (cannot be configured much by the targets), but will be
+extended in the future.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="subtarget">Code Generator Subtarget
+Support</a></div>
+
+<div class="doc_text">
+<p>It is now straight-forward to parameterize a target implementation, and
+provide a mapping from CPU names to sets of target parameters. LLC now supports
+a <tt>-mcpu=cpu</tt> option that lets you choose a subtarget by CPU name: use
+"<tt>llvm-as < /dev/null | llc -march=XXX -mcpu=help</tt>" to get a list of
+supported CPUs for target "XXX". It also provides a
+<tt>-mattr=+attr1,-attr2</tt> option that can be used to control individual
+features of a target (the previous command will list available features as
+well).</p>
+
+<p>This functionality is nice when you want tell LLC something like "compile to
+code that is specialized for the PowerPC G5, but doesn't use altivec code. In
+this case, using "<tt>llc -march=ppc32 -mcpu=g5 -mattr=-altivec</tt>".</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<!--_________________________________________________________________________-->
+<div class="doc_subsubsection"><a name="jitlock">Other New Features</a></div>
+
<div class="doc_text">
<ol>
<li>The JIT now uses mutexes to protect its internal data structures. This
allows multi-threaded programs to be run from the JIT or interpreter without
corruption of the internal data structures. See
- <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR418">PR418</a> and
- <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR540">PR540</a> for the details.
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR418">PR418</a> and
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR540">PR540</a> for the details.
</li>
+ <li>LLVM on Win32 <a href="http://llvm.org/PR614">no longer requires sed,
+ flex, or bison when compiling with Visual C++</a>.</li>
+ <li>The llvm-test suite can now use the NAG Fortran to C compiler to compile
+ SPEC FP programs if available (allowing us to test all of SPEC'95 &
+ 2000).</li>
+ <li>When bugpoint is grinding away and the user hits ctrl-C, it now
+ gracefully stops and gives what it has reduced so far, instead of
+ giving up completely. In addition, <a href="http://llvm.org/PR576">the JIT
+ debugging mode of bugpoint is much faster</a>.</li>
+ <li>LLVM now includes Xcode project files in the llvm/Xcode directory.</li>
+ <li>LLVM now supports Mac OS/X on Intel.</li>
+ <li>LLVM now builds cleanly with GCC 4.1.</li>
</ol>
</div>
@@ -89,11 +182,45 @@
<a name="codequality">Code Quality Improvements in LLVM 1.6</a>
</div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+<ol>
+ <li>The <tt>-globalopt</tt> pass can now statically evaluate C++ static
+ constructors when they are simple enough. For example, it can
+ now statically initialize "<tt>struct X { int a; X() : a(4) {} } g;</tt>".
+ </li>
+ <li>The Loop Strength Reduction pass has been completely rewritten, is far
+ more aggressive, and is turned on by default in the RISC targets. On PPC,
+ we find that it often speeds up programs from 10-40% depending on the
+ program.</li>
+ <li>The code produced when exception handling is enabled is far more
+ efficient in some cases, particularly on Mac OS/X.</li>
+</ol>
+</div>
+
+
<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="codequality">Code Generator Improvements in LLVM 1.6</a>
</div>
+<div class="doc_text">
+<ol>
+<li>The Alpha backend is substantially more stable and robust than in LLVM 1.5.
+ For example, it now fully supports varargs functions. The Alpha backend
+ also now features beta JIT support.</li>
+<li>The code generator contains a new component, the DAG Combiner. This allows
+ us to optimize lowered code (e.g. after 64-bit operations have been lowered
+ to use 32-bit registers on 32-bit targets) and do fine-grained bit-twiddling
+ optimizations for the backend.</li>
+<li>The SelectionDAG infrastructure is far more capable and mature, able to
+ handle many new target peculiarities in a target-independent way.</li>
+<li>The default <a href="http://llvm.org/PR547">register allocator is now far
+ faster on some testcases</a>,
+ particularly on targets with a large number of registers (e.g. IA64
+ and PPC).</li>
+</ol>
+</div>
+
<!--=========================================================================-->
<div class="doc_subsection">
<a name="bugfix">Significant Bugs Fixed in LLVM 1.6</a>
@@ -101,7 +228,22 @@
<div class="doc_text">
<ol>
- <li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR591">[simplify-libcalls] The simplify-libcalls pass generates ill-formed LLVM code</a>.</li>
+ <li>A vast number of bugs have been fixed in the PowerPC backend and in
+ llvm-gcc when configured for Mac OS/X (particularly relating to ABI
+ issues). For example:
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR603">PR449</a>,
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR594">PR594</a>,
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR603">PR603</a>,
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR609">PR609</a>,
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR630">PR630</a>,
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/PR643">PR643</a>,
+ and several others without bugzilla bugs.</li>
+ <li>Several bugs in tail call support have been fixed.</li>
+ <li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR608">configure does not correctly detect gcc
+ version on cygwin</a>.</li>
+ <li>Many many other random bugs have been fixed. Query <a
+ href="http://llvm.org/bugs">our bugzilla</a> with a target of 1.6 for more
+ information.</li>
</ol>
</div>
@@ -145,7 +287,7 @@
<p>This section contains all known problems with the LLVM system, listed by
component. As new problems are discovered, they will be added to these
sections. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
-href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
+href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
there isn't already one.</p>
</div>
@@ -169,6 +311,7 @@
<li>The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool is in a very early stage of development, but can
be used to step through programs and inspect the stack.</li>
<li>The SparcV8 and IA64 code generators are experimental.</li>
+<li>The Alpha JIT is experimental.</li>
</ul>
</div>
@@ -206,7 +349,7 @@
</pre></li>
<li>Initialization of global union variables can only be done <a
-href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR162">with the largest union member</a>.</li>
+href="http://llvm.org/PR162">with the largest union member</a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
@@ -431,7 +574,7 @@
(for example, GCC requires the <tt>-fno-strict-aliasing</tt> option). This
problem probably cannot be fixed.</li>
-<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
+<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR56">Zero arg vararg functions are not
supported</a>. This should not affect LLVM produced by the C or C++
frontends.</li>
@@ -447,7 +590,8 @@
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
-<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR566">Memory Mapped I/O Intrinsics do not fence memory</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR566">Memory Mapped I/O Intrinsics do not fence
+memory</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
@@ -473,7 +617,7 @@
<div class="doc_text">
<ul>
-<li><a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR60">[sparcv9] SparcV9 backend miscompiles
+<li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR60">[sparcv9] SparcV9 backend miscompiles
several programs in the LLVM test suite</a></li>
</ul>
@@ -511,7 +655,7 @@
speaking this is not a bug in the IA64 back-end; it will also be encountered
when building C++ programs using the C back-end.)</li>
-<li>The C++ front-end does not use <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/PR406">IA64
+<li>The C++ front-end does not use <a href="http://llvm.org/PR406">IA64
ABI compliant layout of v-tables</a>. In particular, it just stores function
pointers instead of function descriptors in the vtable. This bug prevents
mixing C++ code compiled with LLVM with C++ objects compiled by other C++
@@ -549,16 +693,16 @@
<div class="doc_text">
<p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
-href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">LLVM web page</a>, including <a
-href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/docs/">documentation</a> and <a
-href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/pubs/">publications describing algorithms and
+href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, including <a
+href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> and <a
+href="http://llvm.org/pubs/">publications describing algorithms and
components implemented in LLVM</a>. The web page also contains versions of the
API documentation which is up-to-date with the CVS version of the source code.
You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
<p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
-us via the <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu/docs/#maillist"> mailing
+us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
lists</a>.</p>
</div>
@@ -572,8 +716,8 @@
<a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!" /></a>
- <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
- Last modified: $Date: 2005/10/29 05:14:01 $
+ <a href="http://llvm.org/">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
+ Last modified: $Date: 2005/10/29 07:07:09 $
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