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Learn LLVM 12

You're reading from   Learn LLVM 12 A beginner's guide to learning LLVM compiler tools and core libraries with C++

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Product type Paperback
Published in May 2021
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781839213502
Length 392 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Kai Nacke Kai Nacke
Author Profile Icon Kai Nacke
Kai Nacke
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Table of Contents (17) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Section 1 – The Basics of Compiler Construction with LLVM
2. Chapter 1: Installing LLVM FREE CHAPTER 3. Chapter 2: Touring the LLVM Source 4. Chapter 3: The Structure of a Compiler 5. Section 2 – From Source to Machine Code Generation
6. Chapter 4: Turning the Source File into an Abstract Syntax Tree 7. Chapter 5: Basics of IR Code Generation 8. Chapter 6: IR Generation for High-Level Language Constructs 9. Chapter 7: Advanced IR Generation 10. Chapter 8: Optimizing IR 11. Section 3 –Taking LLVM to the Next Level
12. Chapter 9: Instruction Selection 13. Chapter 10: JIT Compilation 14. Chapter 11: Debugging Using LLVM Tools 15. Chapter 12: Create Your Own Backend 16. Other Books You May Enjoy

Supporting new machine instructions

The CPU you are targeting may have machine instructions not yet supported by LLVM. For example, manufacturers using the MIPS architecture often add special instructions to the core MIPS instruction set. The specification of the RISC-V instruction set explicitly allows manufacturers to add new instructions. Or you are adding a completely new backend, and then you must add the instructions of the CPU. In the next section, we will add assembler support for a single, new machine instruction to an LLVM backend.

Adding a new instruction to the assembler and code generation

New machine instructions are usually tied to a certain CPU feature. Then the new instruction is only recognized if the user has selected the feature using the --mattr= option to llc.

As an example, we will add a new machine instruction to the MIPS backend. The imaginary, new machine instruction first squares the value of the two input registers $2 and $3 and assigns the sum...

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