Re: New test cases - "VMX" (Altivec) ABI and API

[Jim Wilson <wilson at redhat dot com>]

>This patch adds a large set of test cases for the Altivec ABI and
>API.  These originally were written at Motorola, but were passed on to
>me by people at Wind River.  I have had to redact them heavily to make
>them acceptable to the present compiler -- not to mention,
>comprehensible by humans; I suspect the originals were machine
>generated, but the generator has been lost.

I doubt that the generator has been lost.  Maybe you didn't ask the right
people, i.e. Motorola.  I have a copy of the spe generator.  I might be able
to get a copy of the altivec generator.

Motorola may have a newer version of the generator that doesn't require lots
of hand modification.

More importantly though, I believe these testcases are copyright Motorola,
and hence we perhaps should be asking Motorola for permission before
including them in our testsuite.  The spe ones I have say
/* Copyright (c)2002 Motorola, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED */

>These test cases expose a few compiler bugs, which I will address in
>forthcoming patches.  They also expose the disappointing fact that the
>PPC simulator (sim/ppc) doesn't support Altivec instructions.

I agree it is disappointing.  Red Hat has patches for Altivec simulator
support that haven't been contributed yet.  I just asked about this a few
days ago, and got an answer I didn't fully understand.  I will prod again.

Jim