Optimization of bit field assignemnts

[Hugh Gleaves]

I’m interested in whether it would be feasible to add an optimization that compacted assignments to multiple bit fields.

Today, if I have a 32 bit long struct composed of say, four 8 bit fields and assign constants to them like this:

                ahb1_ptr->RCC.CFGR.MCO1_PRE = 7;
                ahb1_ptr->RCC.CFGR.I2SSC = 0;
                ahb1_ptr->RCC.CFGR.MCO1 = 3;

This generates code (on Arm) like this:

                ahb1_ptr->RCC.CFGR.MCO1_PRE = 7;
0x08000230  ldr.w r1, [r3, #2056]              @ 0x808
0x08000234  orr.w r1, r1, #117440512     @ 0x7000000
0x08000238  str.w r1, [r3, #2056]              @ 0x808
                ahb1_ptr->RCC.CFGR.I2SSC = 0;
0x0800023c  ldr.w r1, [r3, #2056]              @ 0x808
0x08000240  bfc r1, #23, #1
0x08000244  str.w r1, [r3, #2056]              @ 0x808
                ahb1_ptr->RCC.CFGR.MCO1 = 3;
0x08000248  ldr.w r1, [r3, #2056]              @ 0x808
0x0800024c  orr.w r1, r1, #6291456          @ 0x600000
0x08000250  str.w r1, [r3, #2056]              @ 0x808

It would be an improvement, if the compiler analyzed these assignments and realized they are all modifications to the same 32 bit datum, generate an appropriate OR and AND bitmask and then apply those to the register and do just a single store at the end.

In other words, infer the equivalent of this:

                RCC->CFGR &= ~0x07E00000;
                RCC->CFGR |=    0x07600000;

This strikes me as very feasible, the compiler knows the offset and bit length of the sub fields so all of the information needed seems to be present.

Thoughts…