[LLVMdev] Handling Masked Vector Operations

[James Courtier-Dutton]

On 2 May 2013 16:57,  <dag at cray.com> wrote:
> We're looking at how to handle masked vector operations in architectures
> like Knight's Corner.  In our case, we have to translate from a fully
> vectorized IR that has mask support to llvm IR which does not have mask
> support.
>

Has anyone done a comparision between the "fully vectorized IR and "LLVM IR" ?
If someone has already invented a "fully vectorized IR", it might be
beneficial to not re-invent it for LLVM.
For example, if you are optimizing a loop, and splitting it into 3
loops, one of which can then be fully vectorized, it would be useful
to represent that optimization/translation at the IR level. Adding
mask support to LLVM IR would therefore seem a sensible course to me.
It might be a short term pain, but would possibly benefit the longterm
optimization goals of LLVM.