what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

[Mike Frysinger]

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the simulator had VPU tracing support proposed here:
	https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb/2001-02/msg00267.html

and committed here:
	https://sourceware.org/git/?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=commitdiff;h=01816cd804ec526927f53f0e408dae8c6ea269f2

but nowhere can i seem to find a description of what the "VPU" actually is.
the references to cgen doesn't lead anywhere as a grep of the cgen tree doesn't 
match anything.  the only user in the sim tree is msp430, and it uses it for
generic cpu register tracing.  i would guess that it means "video processing 
unit" as Google would lead me to believe, but that doesn't make sense in the
cgen/sim context.  same for "virtual processing unit".

can anyone shed some light on this ?
-mike

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Re: what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

[Doug Evans]

On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 2:55 PM, Mike Frysinger <vapier@gentoo.org> wrote:
> the simulator had VPU tracing support proposed here:
>         https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb/2001-02/msg00267.html
>
> and committed here:
>         https://sourceware.org/git/?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=commitdiff;h=01816cd804ec526927f53f0e408dae8c6ea269f2
>
> but nowhere can i seem to find a description of what the "VPU" actually is.
> the references to cgen doesn't lead anywhere as a grep of the cgen tree doesn't
> match anything.  the only user in the sim tree is msp430, and it uses it for
> generic cpu register tracing.  i would guess that it means "video processing
> unit" as Google would lead me to believe, but that doesn't make sense in the
> cgen/sim context.  same for "virtual processing unit".
>
> can anyone shed some light on this ?
> -mike

Hi.
I can't, except to say the term "vpu" doesn't exist in the cgen world.
I think Ben is your best here.

Re: what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

[DJ Delorie]

> can anyone shed some light on this ?

IIRC: Vector Processing Unit

Part of the emotion engine (a mips variant done in cgen) used in the
Playstation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_Engine#Vector_processing_units

(the msp430 uses it because it was available and I couldn't find a
--trace-regs option)

Re: what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

[Mike Frysinger]

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On 23 Jun 2015 16:20, DJ Delorie wrote:
> 
> > can anyone shed some light on this ?
> 
> IIRC: Vector Processing Unit
> 
> Part of the emotion engine (a mips variant done in cgen) used in the
> Playstation
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion_Engine#Vector_processing_units
> 
> (the msp430 uses it because it was available and I couldn't find a
> --trace-regs option)

i'm looking at adding a general --trace-register option geared towards cpu 
registers, so i'll convert msp430 over to that
-mike

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Re: what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

[DJ Delorie]

Do me a favor and add a "--trace-regs" alias so I don't have to type
as much.  I use that one a lot ;-)

Re: what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

[Mike Frysinger]

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On 23 Jun 2015 22:55, DJ Delorie wrote:
> Do me a favor and add a "--trace-regs" alias so I don't have to type
> as much.  I use that one a lot ;-)

the way the option parser works, --trace-reg works when the full name is 
--trace-register.  is that sufficient ?
-mike

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Re: what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

[DJ Delorie]

> the way the option parser works, --trace-reg works when the full name is=20
> --trace-register.  is that sufficient ?

Yup.  Thanks!

Re: what is the "VPU" (in igen/cgen/sim) ?

[Mike Frysinger]

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On 24 Jun 2015 11:29, DJ Delorie wrote:
> > the way the option parser works, --trace-reg works when the full name is=20
> > --trace-register.  is that sufficient ?
> 
> Yup.  Thanks!

that's in master branch now, and i've converted bfin/msp430 over
-mike

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