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authorStefan Liebler <stli@linux.vnet.ibm.com>2015-08-26 10:26:26 +0200
committerAndreas Krebbel <krebbel@linux.vnet.ibm.com>2015-08-26 10:26:26 +0200
commit1efad39b227c0d3cd0641cae70c7e95c8ca290a6 (patch)
tree4df920c94cfe4da659848978fdf5e1cb973d5c5a /BUGS
parent798f5b4b5d24e5687dd55acc535954ed1d59c10c (diff)
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S390: Optimize string, wcsmbs and memory functions.
This patch set introduces optimized string, wcsmbs and memory functions for
S390/S390x. The functions are accelerated by the usage of the new z13 vector
instructions.

The Principles of Operations manual for IBM z13 is publically available:
http://publibfi.boulder.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/dz9zr010.pdf

The support for these instructions in assembler was introduced by commits:
-"[Committed] S/390: Add support for IBM z13."
 (https://sourceware.org/ml/binutils/2015-01/msg00197.html)
-"[Committed] S/390: Add more IBM z13 instructions"
 (https://sourceware.org/ml/binutils/2015-03/msg00088.html)

The first patches do preparation for the latter optimization patches.
The floating point exception handling - fetestexcept(), ... - is fixed and
the platform and hwcap strings are extended.
The current ifunc routines memset, memcpy and memcmp are refactored and the
ifunc test-framework is now enabled.
A S390 specific configure-check tests if the used binutils supports the new
vector instructions. The optimized functions are provided via ifunc if the
binutils supports the vector instructions. Otherwise a message is dumped to
configure output and only the currently used common code functions are
available.

The optimized functions are implemented in common for s390-32 and s390-64
and the few differences are handled via #ifdef.

The ifunc-resolvers are defined in files sysdeps/s390/multiarch/<func>.c,
which choose either the current implementation __<func>_c() or the vector
implementation __<func>_vx() depending on the HWCAP_S390_VX flag bit in
AT_HWCAP field. If the bit is set, the hardware and the kernel are supporting
vector registers and instructions. If the used binutils lacks vector-support,
then the default implementation in string or wcsmbs directory is included
here instead.
The file sysdeps/s390/multiarch/<func>-c.c includes the current implementation
and defines the function name __<func>_c.
The assembler files sysdeps/s390/multiarch/<func>-vx.S with the vector
instructions are using the directive '.machine "z13"' to allow building glibc
without option '-march=z13'. Additionally the directive '.machinemode
"zarch_nohighgprs"' is needed for the 31bit glibc. This mode does not set the
highgprs flag in ELF header, which would lead to an unloadable libc on a 31bit
kernel.

The most optimized string functions are structured in the same way:
The first 16 bytes of the string is loaded unaligned via vlbb - vector load
to block boundary (e.g. 4k). This instruction loads 16 bytes if possible.
In case of a page cross, it only loads the last bytes of the current page
without a segmentation fault.
Afterwards these first part of string is processed. If e.g. for strlen the end
of string is reached within this first part, the function returns. Otherwise
the pointer is aligned to 16 byte, so i can load a full vector register with vl
without checking for a page cross. Afterwards the first part of string is
processed. If e.g. for strlen the end of string is reached within this first
part, the function returns. Otherwise the pointer is aligned to 16 byte, so
a full vector register can be loaded with vl - vector load - without checking
for a page cross. The remaining string is processed in a four times unrolled
loop, because benchmark results measured improvements compared to a non
unrolled loop.

The optimized wide string functions can only handle 4byte aligned string
pointers. Although a wchar_t pointer should always be 4byte aligned, the most
current common code wide string functions can handle non aligned strings.
Thus the optimized functions will fall back to the common code functions in
case of a non aligned wide string to behave the same as before this patch.

Some string tests can test the string and the wide string version of a function.
The remaining ones are extended and new wide string tests are added.
This is the same in case of the benchtests.

ChangeLog:

	* NEWS: New item for IBM z13 string optimizations.
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