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Using PPC .cpu directive to help contain code generation risk?

Jeffrey Walton noloader@gmail.com
Fri Aug 3 04:12:00 GMT 2018 
I'm trying to find a solution to a PPC code generation issue on GCC112
from the compile farm. It is a ppc64-le machine. The problem relates
to IBM XLC compiler with the LLVM front-end.

Non-LLVM versions of XLC provided -qarch=pwr4, -qarch=pwr7,
-qarch=pwr8, etc. LLVM versions only provide -qarch=pwr8. This is a
problem for source files written for lower ISAs if the compiler
selects instructions from higher ISAs.

I was thinking I could contain the ISA cross-pollination risk with the
following. Keep in mind I have to compile with -qarch=pwr8 because
that is the only thing LLVM front-end provides.

    // Test aligned vector load using PWR4
    asm(".cpu pwr4    \n");
    uint8x16_p v1 = vec_ld(0, b1);

    // Test unaligned vector load using PWR7
    asm(".cpu pwr7    \n");
    uint8x16_p v2 = vec_xl(0, b2);

    // Test AES encrypt using PWR8
    asm(".cpu pwr8    \n");
    uint8x16_p s = __vcipher(s, k);

    // Back to PWR4
    asm(".cpu pwr4    \n");

My question is, is this a tenable solution? Or is likely to encounter
problems over time?

Jeff
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