[llvm-dev] Hexagon, DFAPacketzier and dependency pruning

[Krzysztof Parzyszek via llvm-dev]

On 11/20/2015 12:52 PM, Rail Shafigulin via llvm-dev wrote:
> DFAPacketizer has a virtual method isLegalToPruneDependencies(). I
> looked at  the Hexagon code and but wasn't unable to understand the
> details (unfortunately as of now, I'm not well versed in the Hexagon
> architecture). Would anyone be able to shed light on what is dependency
> pruning and how it should be used?
>
> Any help is appreciated.

Two instructions can be packetized if
- "isLegalToPacketizeTogether" returns true, or
- "isLegalToPruneDependencies" returns true.

The reason why two instructions may not be "legal to packetize together" 
may be that there is some form of dependency between the two.  For 
example, one instruction may define register, and the next one may use 
it.  In most cases on Hexagon, these cannot go into the same packet: all 
registers used in a packet are read before anything gets updated.  There 
are exception to this, and in some cases, instructions can go together 
despite dependencies---this is where these dependencies can get "pruned" 
(which really means "ignored").

The code in Hexagon is somewhat convoluted, in the current shape it's 
not necessarily something to imitate.  As a first approximation, you can 
just leave the "isLegalToPruneDependencies" with the default 
implementation (that returns "false").  This way only 
"isLegalToPacketizeTogether" will determine if two instructions can be 
in a packet together or not.

-Krzysztof


-- 
Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. is a member of Code Aurora Forum, 
hosted by The Linux Foundation