[LLVMdev] Fwd: Need Help Understanding Operands in X86 MachineFunctionPass

[Stephen Checkoway]

Trying again from the correct email address, sorry if you get this twice.

On Sep 11, 2012, at 10:57 AM, John Criswell wrote:

> I'm working on an X86 MachineFunctionPass that adds prefetch instructions to a function.  I have code that adds a "prefetchnta <constant address>" instruction to x86 32-bit code.  What I want to do is to add a "prefetchnta <constant address>" instruction to x86_64 code.

Given that you don't actually want to execute this instruction ever, is there a reason to even emit the instruction? Why not just stick your ID directly into the code and then jump beyond it. Executing the instruction causes a slow down and it requires a bunch of extra bytes. If you can live with a 32-bit ID, it'll take 4 bytes. If you go the prefetchnta (or any of the other prefetch instructions) route, then on the x86_64, it looks like you're going to have 2 bytes of opcode, a mod r/m byte, and 8 bytes of address and look something like 0f 18 00 dd cc bb aa 00 00 00 00 (I probably got the mod r/m byte wrong, it's a /0 for prefetchnta at any rate). That's just going to add extra pressure to the icache.

> The code for adding the 32-bit instruction is:
> 
> BuildMI(MBB,MI,dl,TII->get(X86::PREFETCHNTA)).addReg(0).addImm(0).addReg(0).addImm(<constant>).addReg(0);

That's surprising to me. What are all of those registers and immediates for?


-- 
Stephen Checkoway