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[RFC] dl-procinfo and HWCAP_IMPORTANT support for powerpc, revised
- From: Steve Munroe <sjmunroe at us dot ibm dot com>
- To: libc-alpha at sources dot redhat dot com
- Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 16:05:18 -0600
- Subject: [RFC] dl-procinfo and HWCAP_IMPORTANT support for powerpc, revised
This RFC has been through the wash and spin cycles a couple of times with
the wider community and I think is in final form. If ther are no
objections I will submit a small patch for libc/powerpc to match the
proposal below.
-------------------
The recently committed dl-procinfo support for powerpc provides names for
AT_HWCAP bits as of 2.6.15. This update also defines HWCAP_IMPORTANT
support that allows for HWCAP based extensions to the library search path.
The intent is to allow the loader (ld.so) to select the most appropriate
version of a library given the hardware we are running on. This is
equivalent the support for i686 optimized libraries for the i386 platform.
The 2.6.15 kernel defines the following AT_HWCAP bits:
#define PPC_FEATURE_32 0x80000000 /* 32-bit mode. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_64 0x40000000 /* 64-bit mode. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_601_INSTR 0x20000000 /* 601 chip, Old POWER ISA.
*/
#define PPC_FEATURE_HAS_ALTIVEC 0x10000000 /* SIMD/Vector Unit. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_HAS_FPU 0x08000000 /* Floating Point Unit. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_HAS_MMU 0x04000000 /* Memory Management Unit.
*/
#define PPC_FEATURE_HAS_4xxMAC 0x02000000 /* 4xx Multiply Accumulator.
*/
#define PPC_FEATURE_UNIFIED_CACHE 0x01000000 /* Unified I/D cache. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_HAS_SPE 0x00800000 /* Signal Processing
Extentions. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_HAS_EFP_SINGLE 0x00400000 /* SPE Float. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_HAS_EFP_DOUBLE 0x00200000 /* SPE Double. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_NO_TB 0x00100000 /* 601/403gx have no
timebase. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_POWER4 0x00080000 /* POWER4 ISA 2.00
level. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_POWER5 0x00040000 /* POWER5 ISA 2.01
level. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_POWER5_PLUS 0x00020000 /* POWER5+ ISA 2.02 level. */
#define PPC_FEATURE_CELL_BE 0x00010000 /* CELL Broadband
Engine. */
To which we will add the following:
#define PPC_FEATURE_BOOKE 0x00008000 /* BOOKE ISA features. */
These bits where given the following procinfo names
"ppc32",
"ppc64",
"ppc601",
"altivec",
"fpu",
"mmu",
"4xxmac",
"ucache",
"spe",
"efpsingle",
"efpdouble",
"notb",
"power4",
"power5",
"power5+",
"cell"
To which we will change/add the following: "cell" will become "cellbe",
add "booke".
The initial proposal was sufficient for current needs of PowerPC 64-bit,
but concern was expressed that PowerPC 32-bit and embedded where not
covered. Also the concern was raised that HWCAP was a finite resource that
might be exhausted by the large variety of 32-bit PowerPC (cpu_type)
variants and future 64-bit processors.
It was suggested that AT_PLATFORM is a better mechanism for supporting a
large variety of cpu-types for compiler (micro-architecture)
optimizations. And AT_HWCAP should be focused on ISA features and optional
execution units.
The PPC_FEATURE_POWER4, PPC_FEATURE_POWER5, PPC_FEATURE_POWER5_PLUS are
still useful because they represent ISA Version levels where each level
introduces new user state instructions:
PPC_FEATURE_POWER4 -> PowerPC ISA Version 2.00
PPC_FEATURE_POWER5 -> PowerPC ISA Version 2.01
PPC_FEATURE_POWER5_PLUS -> PowerPC ISA Version 2.02
Perhaps these should be renamed or aliased, to something like
PPC_FEATURE_ISA_POWER4, but this is not critical to this (dl-procinfo)
proposal. For library search these are redundant with the AT_PLATFORM
information, so they will be removed from the HWCAP_IMPORTANT mask.
But for the embedded space there we need a HWCAP bit to identify the user
mode "isel", "mbar", "msync", etc ISA feature associated with BOOKE. So we
propose adding HWCAP bit for PPC_FEATURE_BOOKE to represent this ISA
extention common in the embedded space.
The new HWCAP_IMPORTANT mask is:
+#define HWCAP_IMPORTANT (PPC_FEATURE_HAS_ALTIVEC \
+ | PPC_FEATURE_CELL_BE \
+ | PPC_FEATURE_BOOKE)
With this change AT_PLATFORM provides the cpu_type selection while
AT_HWCAP provides ISA modifiers for the ALTIVEC, CELL_BE, and BOOKE
features. ALTIVEC, CELL_BE, BOOKE are exclusive features so a maximum 2
directory levels are introduced.
The specific strings provided in AT_PLATFORM are "inspired" by the gcc
-mcpu= cpu_type names. Self defining names are used as is (power4,
power5, ...). For AT_PLATFORM numeric chip_type names (970, 7450, ...) are
prefixed with "ppc" (ppc970, ppc7450). Where the cpu_type has aliases (G5
is an alias for 970) the more generic name is used (i.e. ppc970 not G5 and
ppc7450 not G4).
For 64-bit processors and kernels we can assume (at least) the following
AT_PLATFORM names: "rs64", "power3", "power4", "power5", "power5+",
"ppc970" (AKA G5), and "ppc-cell-be".
For 32-bit processors and kernels we propose a longer list as dictated by
the cpu_types the kernel supports. The current list is: "ppc403",
"ppc405", "ppc440", "ppc440GP", "ppc601", "ppc603", "ppc604", "ppc7400",
"ppc7450" (AKA G4), "ppc750" (AKA G3), "ppc823", "ppc8540".
Note: the "powerpc" value is reserved and only used for the case where the
PVR value is unrecognized.
The dl-procinfo implementation uses this information to augment the
library search list. The proposed correspondence between processors and
runtime library search directories (assuming the current nptl paths) are:
processor library search
========== ============
power4 /lib[64]/tls/power4, /lib[64]/tls, /lib[64]
power5 /lib[64]/tls/power5, /lib[64]/tls, /lib[64]
power5+ /lib[64]/tls/power5+, /lib[64]/tls, /lib[64]
970/G5 /lib[64]/tls/ppc970/altivec, /lib[64]/tls/ppc970,
/lib[64]/tls/altivec,
/lib[64]/tls, /lib[64]
7450/G4 /lib/tls/ppc7450/altivec, /lib/tls/ppc7450,
/lib/tls/altivec, /lib/tls, /lib
750/G3 /lib/tls/ppc750, /lib/tls, /lib
440 /lib/tls/ppc440/booke, /lib/tls/ppc440, /lib/tls/booke,
/lib/tls, /lib
Note: The additional "altivec" level for the 970/7450 is an artifact of
the PPC_FEATURE_HAS_ALTIVEC modifier from AT_HWCAP. The "altivec"
directory can be used to store Altivec optimized libraries that are common
across platforms. The simularly for the "booke" level for the 440 is an
artifact of PPC_FEATURE_BOOKE.
Steven J. Munroe
Linux on Power Toolchain Architect
IBM Corporation, Linux Technology Center