Re: Ideas for Google Summer of Code

[rridge at csclub dot uwaterloo dot ca (Ross Ridge)]

Paolo Bonzini writes:
>Regarding the NVIDIA GPU backend, I think NVIDIA is not yet distributing
>details about the instruction set unlike ATI, is it?  In this case, I
>think ATI would be a better match.

I think a GPU backend would be well beyond the scope of a Summer of
Code project.  GPUs don't have normal stacks and addressing support
is limitted. 

>Another possibility is to analyze OpenCL C and try to integrate its
>features in GCC as much as possible.  This would include
>
>1) masking/swizzling support for GCC's "generic vector" language extension;

A project that started and ended here would give GCC, in particular
GCC's Cell SPU port, the only major required functionality in the OpenCL
language, outside the runtime, that GCC is missing.

>2) half-precision floats;

Do you mean just conversion only support, like Sandra Loosemore's
proposed ARM patch, or full arithmetic support like any other scalar or
vector type?

					Ross Ridge