[llvm] [Docs] Add a release note about trivial VP intrinsic removal (PR #218341)

[Luke Lau via llvm-commits]

https://github.com/lukel97 created https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/218341

None

>From 1a7cf5d292f79abbac30fe2a2187c757dff8089e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Luke Lau <luke at igalia.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2026 15:54:34 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] [Docs] Add a release note about trivial VP intrinsic removal

---
 llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.md | 79 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 79 insertions(+)

diff --git a/llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.md b/llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.md
index 051d726b7aa8d..e47593e934b37 100644
--- a/llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.md
+++ b/llvm/docs/ReleaseNotes.md
@@ -56,6 +56,85 @@ Makes programs 10x faster by doing Special New Thing.
   freeing the underlying object (as opposed to only frees through that specific
   pointer). Renamed `!nofree` metadata to `!nofreeobj`, as it has the same
   semantics.
+* The following VP intrinsics have been removed:
+  * `llvm.vp.select.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.add.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.sub.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.mul.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.ashr.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.lshr.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.shl.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.or.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.and.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.xor.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.abs.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.smax.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.smin.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.umax.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.umin.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.copysign.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.minnum.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.maxnum.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.minimum.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.maximum.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fadd.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fsub.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fmul.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fdiv.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.frem.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fneg.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fabs.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.sqrt.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fma.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fmuladd.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.trunc.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.zext.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.sext.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fptrunc.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fpext.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fptoui.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fptosi.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.uitofp.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.sitofp.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.ptrtoint.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.inttoptr.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fcmp.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.icmp.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.ceil.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.floor.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.rint.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.nearbyint.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.round.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.roundeven.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.roundtozero.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.lrint.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.llrint.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.bitreverse.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.bswap.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.ctpop.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.ctlz.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.cttz.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.sadd.sat.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.uadd.sat.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.ssub.sat.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.usub.sat.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fshl.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.fshr.*`
+  * `llvm.vp.is.fpclass.*`
+
+  These intrinsics previously only set masked-off lanes to poison, and will be
+  automatically upgraded to their non-VP equivalent.  On RISC-V the VL optimizer
+  should automatically infer `vl` in most cases from a store or reduction
+  instruction, so passing around an explicit EVL operand shouldn't be required.
+  If needed a "root" EVL can be synthesized with `llvm.vp.merge`, e.g:
+
+  ```llvm
+  %x = add <vscale x 2 x i32> %y, %z
+  %res = call <vscale x 2 x i32> @llvm.vp.merge(<vscale x 2 x i32> %x, <vscale x 2 x i32> poison, <vscale x 2 x i1> splat (i1 true), i32 %evl)
+  ```
+
+  The `llvm.vp.merge` will be folded away but the `%evl` will be propagated to
+  the add instruction.
 
 ### Changes to LLVM infrastructure