[llvm-dev] [PATCH 0/2] Initial support for AVX512FP16

[Hongtao Liu via llvm-dev]

> >
> Set excess_precision_type to FLT_EVAL_METHOD_PROMOTE_TO_FLOAT16 to
> round after each operation could keep semantics right.
> And I'll document the behavior difference between soft-fp and
> AVX512FP16 instruction for exceptions.
I got some feedback from my colleague who's working on supporting
_Float16 for llvm.
The LLVM side wants to set  FLT_EVAL_METHOD_PROMOTE_TO_FLOAT for
soft-fp so that codes can be more efficient.
i.e.
_Float16 a, b, c, d;
d = a + b + c;

would be transformed to
float tmp, tmp1, a1, b1, c1;
a1 = (float) a;
b1 = (float) b;
c1 = (float) c;
tmp = a1 + b1;
tmp1 = tmp + c1;
d = (_Float16) tmp;

so there's only 1 truncation in the end.

if users want to round back after every operation. codes should be
explicitly written as
_Float16 a, b, c, d, e;
e = a + b;
d = e + c;

That's what Clang does, quote from [1]
 _Float16 arithmetic will be performed using native half-precision
support when available on the target (e.g. on ARMv8.2a); otherwise it
will be performed at a higher precision (currently always float) and
then truncated down to _Float16. Note that C and C++ allow
intermediate floating-point operands of an expression to be computed
with greater precision than is expressible in their type, so Clang may
avoid intermediate truncations in certain cases; this may lead to
results that are inconsistent with native arithmetic.

and so does arm gcc
quote from arm.c

/* We can calculate either in 16-bit range and precision or
   32-bit range and precision.  Make that decision based on whether
   we have native support for the ARMv8.2-A 16-bit floating-point
   instructions or not.  */
return (TARGET_VFP_FP16INST
? FLT_EVAL_METHOD_PROMOTE_TO_FLOAT16
: FLT_EVAL_METHOD_PROMOTE_TO_FLOAT);


[1]https://clang.llvm.org/docs/LanguageExtensions.html
> > --
> > Joseph S. Myers
> > joseph at codesourcery.com
>
>
>
> --
> BR,
> Hongtao



-- 
BR,
Hongtao