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Machine description and code generation
- From: "Mathias Roslund" <mathias dot roslund at amidog dot se>
- To: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:40:15 +0100
- Subject: Machine description and code generation
- Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
Hello,
I'm considering attempting a 65816 target but decided it would be a good
idea to start with something simple in order to learn how GCC generate
code. So I created a minimal machine description with just two
instructions (plus the mandatory nop/jump/etc):
(define_mode_iterator INT [QI HI SI])
(define_insn "mov<mode>"
[(set (match_operand:INT 0 "nonimmediate_operand" "=mr")
(match_operand:INT 1 "general_operand" "mri"))
]
""
"move\t%0,%1")
(define_insn "add<mode>3"
[(set (match_operand:INT 0 "nonimmediate_operand" "=mr")
(plus:INT (match_operand:INT 1 "general_operand" "mri")
(match_operand:INT 2 "general_operand" "mri")))
]
""
"add\t%0,%1,%2")
As you can see, all operands may be memory, or registers.
I then created some simple tests and had a look at the generated code:
C:
int data[4];
data[0] = data[1] + data[2];
ASM:
move r0,#data ;# 6 movsi
add r1,r0,#4 ;# 7 addsi3
add r0,r0,#8 ;# 8 addsi3
add data,(r1),(r0) ;# 9 addsi3
C:
int data[4];
data[1] = data[2] + data[3];
ASM:
add data+4,data+8,data+12 ;# 9 addsi3
This is the point where I got really confused. Why does GCC split the add
and generate 4 opcodes in the first example? Changing the optimization
level doesn't make a difference. I've tried to set the indirect register
address cost much higher than symbol_ref/label_ref/const in an atempt to
make GCC avoid those indirect loads, but it didn't help. I've tried it
with GCC 4.8.3 and 4.9.1, they both produce similar, but not identical,
results.
The result is equally strange for a simple move:
C:
data[1] = data[0];
ASM:
move data+4,data ;# 8 movsi
C:
data[0] = data[1];
ASM:
add r0,#data,#4 ;# 7 addsi3
move data,(r0) ;# 8 movsi
What's so special about the first entry in an array that causes this? I
have a feeling I'm missing something obvious here :-)
Any ideas?
Best regards,
Mathias Roslund