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* [PATCH], PowerPC support to enable -mlra and/or -mfloat128
@ 2016-07-11 20:07 Michael Meissner
  2016-07-11 21:25 ` Michael Meissner
  2016-07-12 10:29 ` [PATCH], " Richard Biener
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 17+ messages in thread
From: Michael Meissner @ 2016-07-11 20:07 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: gcc-patches, Segher Boessenkool, David Edelsohn, Bill Schmidt

These configuration switches will allow the PowerPC GCC developers to switch
defaults in the compiler to debug the code, before making the decision to flip
the default permanently.  In the future, when the defaults have been changed,
these configuration options would allow developers to go back to the previous
versions without modifying the code using the --disable-<switch> form.

The first option is --enable-lra, which changes the compiler so that the
default is to use the LRA register allocator instead of the older RELOAD
allocator. The PowerPC team would like to switch the default, but there is a
critical bug in LRA that must be fixed before we can change the default:
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=69847

The second option is --enable-float128, which changes the compiler so that the
default for VSX systems is to enable the __float128 keyword to allow users
access to the IEEE 128-bit floating point implementation without having to use
the keyword.

Both of these switches are debug switches, and are not meant to be used by
non-developers.

The --enable-lra swich causes the following tests to fail:

    * testsuite/gcc.target/powerpc/bool3-p7.c
    * testsuite/gcc.target/powerpc/bool3-p8.c

See bug 71846 (https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=71846) for more
details.

The --enable-float128 switch causes libquadmath and libstdc++ to fail because
we do not yet have enough of the support in the compiler to allow these
libraries to build.  It is our intention, that we will use the
--enable-float128 option and work on getting the libraries fixed.  If I build
just a C compiler and disable building libquadmath, there are no regressions in
the C tests with __float128 enabled or disabled.

Can I check these options into the trunk as non-default options?

-- 
Michael Meissner, IBM
IBM, M/S 2506R, 550 King Street, Littleton, MA 01460-6245, USA
email: meissner@linux.vnet.ibm.com, phone: +1 (978) 899-4797

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 17+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2016-07-20 17:04 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 17+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2016-07-11 20:07 [PATCH], PowerPC support to enable -mlra and/or -mfloat128 Michael Meissner
2016-07-11 21:25 ` Michael Meissner
2016-07-20 17:04   ` [PATCH #2], " Michael Meissner
2016-07-12 10:29 ` [PATCH], " Richard Biener
2016-07-12 11:19   ` Segher Boessenkool
2016-07-12 11:21   ` Bernd Schmidt
2016-07-12 11:31     ` Richard Biener
2016-07-12 12:16       ` Segher Boessenkool
2016-07-12 12:40         ` Bernd Schmidt
2016-07-12 12:45           ` Segher Boessenkool
2016-07-12 12:48             ` Bernd Schmidt
2016-07-12 15:17               ` Bernd Schmidt
2016-07-12 16:31                 ` Segher Boessenkool
2016-07-12 16:57                   ` Bernd Schmidt
2016-07-12 12:55           ` Segher Boessenkool
2016-07-12 19:44     ` Michael Meissner
2016-07-12 21:20       ` Segher Boessenkool

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