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13.16 Adjusting the Instruction Scheduler

The instruction scheduler may need a fair amount of machine-specific adjustment in order to produce good code. GCC provides several target hooks for this purpose. It is usually enough to define just a few of them: try the first ones in this list first.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_ISSUE_RATE (void)

This hook returns the maximum number of instructions that can ever issue at the same time on the target machine. The default is one. Although the insn scheduler can define itself the possibility of issue an insn on the same cycle, the value can serve as an additional constraint to issue insns on the same simulated processor cycle (see hooks `TARGET_SCHED_REORDER' and `TARGET_SCHED_REORDER2'). This value must be constant over the entire compilation. If you need it to vary depending on what the instructions are, you must use `TARGET_SCHED_VARIABLE_ISSUE'.

You could define this hook to return the value of the macro MAX_DFA_ISSUE_RATE.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_VARIABLE_ISSUE (FILE *file, int verbose, rtx insn, int more)

This hook is executed by the scheduler after it has scheduled an insn from the ready list. It should return the number of insns which can still be issued in the current cycle. The default is `more - 1' for insns other than CLOBBER and USE, which normally are not counted against the issue rate. You should define this hook if some insns take more machine resources than others, so that fewer insns can follow them in the same cycle. file is either a null pointer, or a stdio stream to write any debug output to. verbose is the verbose level provided by -fsched-verbose-n. insn is the instruction that was scheduled.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_ADJUST_COST (rtx insn, rtx link, rtx dep_insn, int cost)

This function corrects the value of cost based on the relationship between insn and dep_insn through the dependence link. It should return the new value. The default is to make no adjustment to cost. This can be used for example to specify to the scheduler using the traditional pipeline description that an output- or anti-dependence does not incur the same cost as a data-dependence. If the scheduler using the automaton based pipeline description, the cost of anti-dependence is zero and the cost of output-dependence is maximum of one and the difference of latency times of the first and the second insns. If these values are not acceptable, you could use the hook to modify them too. See also see Processor pipeline description.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_ADJUST_PRIORITY (rtx insn, int priority)

This hook adjusts the integer scheduling priority priority of insn. It should return the new priority. Reduce the priority to execute insn earlier, increase the priority to execute insn later. Do not define this hook if you do not need to adjust the scheduling priorities of insns.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_REORDER (FILE *file, int verbose, rtx *ready, int *n_readyp, int clock)

This hook is executed by the scheduler after it has scheduled the ready list, to allow the machine description to reorder it (for example to combine two small instructions together on `VLIW' machines). file is either a null pointer, or a stdio stream to write any debug output to. verbose is the verbose level provided by -fsched-verbose-n. ready is a pointer to the ready list of instructions that are ready to be scheduled. n_readyp is a pointer to the number of elements in the ready list. The scheduler reads the ready list in reverse order, starting with ready[*n_readyp-1] and going to ready[0]. clock is the timer tick of the scheduler. You may modify the ready list and the number of ready insns. The return value is the number of insns that can issue this cycle; normally this is just issue_rate. See also `TARGET_SCHED_REORDER2'.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_REORDER2 (FILE *file, int verbose, rtx *ready, int *n_ready, clock)

Like `TARGET_SCHED_REORDER', but called at a different time. That function is called whenever the scheduler starts a new cycle. This one is called once per iteration over a cycle, immediately after `TARGET_SCHED_VARIABLE_ISSUE'; it can reorder the ready list and return the number of insns to be scheduled in the same cycle. Defining this hook can be useful if there are frequent situations where scheduling one insn causes other insns to become ready in the same cycle. These other insns can then be taken into account properly.

— Target Hook: void TARGET_SCHED_DEPENDENCIES_EVALUATION_HOOK (rtx head, rtx tail)

This hook is called after evaluation forward dependencies of insns in chain given by two parameter values (head and tail correspondingly) but before insns scheduling of the insn chain. For example, it can be used for better insn classification if it requires analysis of dependencies. This hook can use backward and forward dependencies of the insn scheduler because they are already calculated.

— Target Hook: void TARGET_SCHED_INIT (FILE *file, int verbose, int max_ready)

This hook is executed by the scheduler at the beginning of each block of instructions that are to be scheduled. file is either a null pointer, or a stdio stream to write any debug output to. verbose is the verbose level provided by -fsched-verbose-n. max_ready is the maximum number of insns in the current scheduling region that can be live at the same time. This can be used to allocate scratch space if it is needed, e.g. by `TARGET_SCHED_REORDER'.

— Target Hook: void TARGET_SCHED_FINISH (FILE *file, int verbose)

This hook is executed by the scheduler at the end of each block of instructions that are to be scheduled. It can be used to perform cleanup of any actions done by the other scheduling hooks. file is either a null pointer, or a stdio stream to write any debug output to. verbose is the verbose level provided by -fsched-verbose-n.

— Target Hook: void TARGET_SCHED_INIT_GLOBAL (FILE *file, int verbose, int old_max_uid)

This hook is executed by the scheduler after function level initializations. file is either a null pointer, or a stdio stream to write any debug output to. verbose is the verbose level provided by -fsched-verbose-n. old_max_uid is the maximum insn uid when scheduling begins.

— Target Hook: void TARGET_SCHED_FINISH_GLOBAL (FILE *file, int verbose)

This is the cleanup hook corresponding to TARGET_SCHED_INIT_GLOBAL. file is either a null pointer, or a stdio stream to write any debug output to. verbose is the verbose level provided by -fsched-verbose-n.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_DFA_PRE_CYCLE_INSN (void)

The hook returns an RTL insn. The automaton state used in the pipeline hazard recognizer is changed as if the insn were scheduled when the new simulated processor cycle starts. Usage of the hook may simplify the automaton pipeline description for some VLIW processors. If the hook is defined, it is used only for the automaton based pipeline description. The default is not to change the state when the new simulated processor cycle starts.

— Target Hook: void TARGET_SCHED_INIT_DFA_PRE_CYCLE_INSN (void)

The hook can be used to initialize data used by the previous hook.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_DFA_POST_CYCLE_INSN (void)

The hook is analogous to `TARGET_SCHED_DFA_PRE_CYCLE_INSN' but used to changed the state as if the insn were scheduled when the new simulated processor cycle finishes.

— Target Hook: void TARGET_SCHED_INIT_DFA_POST_CYCLE_INSN (void)

The hook is analogous to `TARGET_SCHED_INIT_DFA_PRE_CYCLE_INSN' but used to initialize data used by the previous hook.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_FIRST_CYCLE_MULTIPASS_DFA_LOOKAHEAD (void)

This hook controls better choosing an insn from the ready insn queue for the DFA-based insn scheduler. Usually the scheduler chooses the first insn from the queue. If the hook returns a positive value, an additional scheduler code tries all permutations of `TARGET_SCHED_FIRST_CYCLE_MULTIPASS_DFA_LOOKAHEAD ()' subsequent ready insns to choose an insn whose issue will result in maximal number of issued insns on the same cycle. For the VLIW processor, the code could actually solve the problem of packing simple insns into the VLIW insn. Of course, if the rules of VLIW packing are described in the automaton.

This code also could be used for superscalar RISC processors. Let us consider a superscalar RISC processor with 3 pipelines. Some insns can be executed in pipelines A or B, some insns can be executed only in pipelines B or C, and one insn can be executed in pipeline B. The processor may issue the 1st insn into A and the 2nd one into B. In this case, the 3rd insn will wait for freeing B until the next cycle. If the scheduler issues the 3rd insn the first, the processor could issue all 3 insns per cycle.

Actually this code demonstrates advantages of the automaton based pipeline hazard recognizer. We try quickly and easy many insn schedules to choose the best one.

The default is no multipass scheduling.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_FIRST_CYCLE_MULTIPASS_DFA_LOOKAHEAD_GUARD (rtx)

This hook controls what insns from the ready insn queue will be considered for the multipass insn scheduling. If the hook returns zero for insn passed as the parameter, the insn will be not chosen to be issued.

The default is that any ready insns can be chosen to be issued.

— Target Hook: int TARGET_SCHED_DFA_NEW_CYCLE (FILE *, int, rtx, int, int, int *)

This hook is called by the insn scheduler before issuing insn passed as the third parameter on given cycle. If the hook returns nonzero, the insn is not issued on given processors cycle. Instead of that, the processor cycle is advanced. If the value passed through the last parameter is zero, the insn ready queue is not sorted on the new cycle start as usually. The first parameter passes file for debugging output. The second one passes the scheduler verbose level of the debugging output. The forth and the fifth parameter values are correspondingly processor cycle on which the previous insn has been issued and the current processor cycle.

— Target Hook: bool TARGET_SCHED_IS_COSTLY_DEPENDENCE (rtx insn1, rtx insn2, rtx dep_link, int dep_cost, int distance)

This hook is used to define which dependences are considered costly by the target, so costly that it is not advisable to schedule the insns that are involved in the dependence too close to one another. The parameters to this hook are as follows: The second parameter insn2 is dependent upon the first parameter insn1. The dependence between insn1 and insn2 is represented by the third parameter dep_link. The fourth parameter cost is the cost of the dependence, and the fifth parameter distance is the distance in cycles between the two insns. The hook returns true if considering the distance between the two insns the dependence between them is considered costly by the target, and false otherwise.

Defining this hook can be useful in multiple-issue out-of-order machines, where (a) it's practically hopeless to predict the actual data/resource delays, however: (b) there's a better chance to predict the actual grouping that will be formed, and (c) correctly emulating the grouping can be very important. In such targets one may want to allow issuing dependent insns closer to one another—i.e., closer than the dependence distance; however, not in cases of "costly dependences", which this hooks allows to define.

Macros in the following table are generated by the program genattr and can be useful for writing the hooks.

— Macro: MAX_DFA_ISSUE_RATE

The macro definition is generated in the automaton based pipeline description interface. Its value is calculated from the automaton based pipeline description and is equal to maximal number of all insns described in constructions `define_insn_reservation' which can be issued on the same processor cycle.