target.h (globalize_decl_name): New.
[gcc.git] / gcc / doc / loop.texi
1 @c Copyright (c) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2 @c Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 @c This is part of the GCC manual.
4 @c For copying conditions, see the file gcc.texi.
5
6 @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
7 @c Loop Representation
8 @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
9
10 @node Loop Representation
11 @chapter Analysis and Representation of Loops
12
13 GCC provides extensive infrastructure for work with natural loops, i.e.,
14 strongly connected components of CFG with only one entry block. This
15 chapter describes representation of loops in GCC, both on GIMPLE and in
16 RTL, as well as the interfaces to loop-related analyses (induction
17 variable analysis and number of iterations analysis).
18
19 @menu
20 * Loop representation:: Representation and analysis of loops.
21 * Loop querying:: Getting information about loops.
22 * Loop manipulation:: Loop manipulation functions.
23 * LCSSA:: Loop-closed SSA form.
24 * Scalar evolutions:: Induction variables on GIMPLE.
25 * loop-iv:: Induction variables on RTL.
26 * Number of iterations:: Number of iterations analysis.
27 * Dependency analysis:: Data dependency analysis.
28 * Lambda:: Linear loop transformations framework.
29 @end menu
30
31 @node Loop representation
32 @section Loop representation
33 @cindex Loop representation
34 @cindex Loop analysis
35
36 This chapter describes the representation of loops in GCC, and functions
37 that can be used to build, modify and analyze this representation. Most
38 of the interfaces and data structures are declared in @file{cfgloop.h}.
39 At the moment, loop structures are analyzed and this information is
40 updated only by the optimization passes that deal with loops, but some
41 efforts are being made to make it available throughout most of the
42 optimization passes.
43
44 In general, a natural loop has one entry block (header) and possibly
45 several back edges (latches) leading to the header from the inside of
46 the loop. Loops with several latches may appear if several loops share
47 a single header, or if there is a branching in the middle of the loop.
48 The representation of loops in GCC however allows only loops with a
49 single latch. During loop analysis, headers of such loops are split and
50 forwarder blocks are created in order to disambiguate their structures.
51 A heuristic based on profile information is used to determine whether
52 the latches correspond to sub-loops or to control flow in a single loop.
53 This means that the analysis sometimes changes the CFG, and if you run
54 it in the middle of an optimization pass, you must be able to deal with
55 the new blocks.
56
57 Body of the loop is the set of blocks that are dominated by its header,
58 and reachable from its latch against the direction of edges in CFG. The
59 loops are organized in a containment hierarchy (tree) such that all the
60 loops immediately contained inside loop L are the children of L in the
61 tree. This tree is represented by the @code{struct loops} structure.
62 The root of this tree is a fake loop that contains all blocks in the
63 function. Each of the loops is represented in a @code{struct loop}
64 structure. Each loop is assigned an index (@code{num} field of the
65 @code{struct loop} structure), and the pointer to the loop is stored in
66 the corresponding field of the @code{larray} vector in the loops
67 structure. Index of a sub-loop is always greater than the index of its
68 super-loop. The indices do not have to be continuous, there may be
69 empty (@code{NULL}) entries in the @code{larray} created by deleting
70 loops. The index of a loop never changes.
71
72 The entries of the @code{larray} field should not be accessed directly.
73 The function @code{get_loop} returns the loop description for a loop with
74 the given index. @code{number_of_loops} function returns number of
75 loops in the function. To traverse all loops, use @code{FOR_EACH_LOOP}
76 macro. The @code{flags} argument of the macro is used to determine
77 the direction of traversal and the set of loops visited.
78
79 Each basic block contains the reference to the innermost loop it belongs
80 to (@code{loop_father}). For this reason, it is only possible to have
81 one @code{struct loops} structure initialized at the same time for each
82 CFG. The global variable @code{current_loops} contains the
83 @code{struct loops} structure. Many of the loop manipulation functions
84 assume that dominance information is up-to-date.
85
86 The loops are analyzed through @code{loop_optimizer_init} function. The
87 argument of this function is a set of flags represented in an integer
88 bitmask. These flags specify what other properties of the loop
89 structures should be calculated/enforced and preserved later:
90
91 @itemize
92 @item @code{LOOPS_HAVE_PREHEADERS}: Forwarder blocks are created in such
93 a way that each loop has only one entry edge, and additionally, the
94 source block of this entry edge has only one successor. This creates a
95 natural place where the code can be moved out of the loop, and ensures
96 that the entry edge of the loop leads from its immediate super-loop.
97 @item @code{LOOPS_HAVE_SIMPLE_LATCHES}: Forwarder blocks are created to
98 force the latch block of each loop to have only one successor. This
99 ensures that the latch of the loop does not belong to any of its
100 sub-loops, and makes manipulation with the loops significantly easier.
101 Most of the loop manipulation functions assume that the loops are in
102 this shape. Note that with this flag, the ``normal'' loop without any
103 control flow inside and with one exit consists of two basic blocks.
104 @item @code{LOOPS_HAVE_MARKED_IRREDUCIBLE_REGIONS}: Basic blocks and
105 edges in the strongly connected components that are not natural loops
106 (have more than one entry block) are marked with
107 @code{BB_IRREDUCIBLE_LOOP} and @code{EDGE_IRREDUCIBLE_LOOP} flags. The
108 flag is not set for blocks and edges that belong to natural loops that
109 are in such an irreducible region (but it is set for the entry and exit
110 edges of such a loop, if they lead to/from this region).
111 @item @code{LOOPS_HAVE_RECORDED_EXITS}: The lists of exits are recorded
112 and updated for each loop. This makes some functions (e.g.,
113 @code{get_loop_exit_edges}) more efficient. Some functions (e.g.,
114 @code{single_exit}) can be used only if the lists of exits are
115 recorded.
116 @end itemize
117
118 These properties may also be computed/enforced later, using functions
119 @code{create_preheaders}, @code{force_single_succ_latches},
120 @code{mark_irreducible_loops} and @code{record_loop_exits}.
121
122 The memory occupied by the loops structures should be freed with
123 @code{loop_optimizer_finalize} function.
124
125 The CFG manipulation functions in general do not update loop structures.
126 Specialized versions that additionally do so are provided for the most
127 common tasks. On GIMPLE, @code{cleanup_tree_cfg_loop} function can be
128 used to cleanup CFG while updating the loops structures if
129 @code{current_loops} is set.
130
131 @node Loop querying
132 @section Loop querying
133 @cindex Loop querying
134
135 The functions to query the information about loops are declared in
136 @file{cfgloop.h}. Some of the information can be taken directly from
137 the structures. @code{loop_father} field of each basic block contains
138 the innermost loop to that the block belongs. The most useful fields of
139 loop structure (that are kept up-to-date at all times) are:
140
141 @itemize
142 @item @code{header}, @code{latch}: Header and latch basic blocks of the
143 loop.
144 @item @code{num_nodes}: Number of basic blocks in the loop (including
145 the basic blocks of the sub-loops).
146 @item @code{depth}: The depth of the loop in the loops tree, i.e., the
147 number of super-loops of the loop.
148 @item @code{outer}, @code{inner}, @code{next}: The super-loop, the first
149 sub-loop, and the sibling of the loop in the loops tree.
150 @end itemize
151
152 There are other fields in the loop structures, many of them used only by
153 some of the passes, or not updated during CFG changes; in general, they
154 should not be accessed directly.
155
156 The most important functions to query loop structures are:
157
158 @itemize
159 @item @code{flow_loops_dump}: Dumps the information about loops to a
160 file.
161 @item @code{verify_loop_structure}: Checks consistency of the loop
162 structures.
163 @item @code{loop_latch_edge}: Returns the latch edge of a loop.
164 @item @code{loop_preheader_edge}: If loops have preheaders, returns
165 the preheader edge of a loop.
166 @item @code{flow_loop_nested_p}: Tests whether loop is a sub-loop of
167 another loop.
168 @item @code{flow_bb_inside_loop_p}: Tests whether a basic block belongs
169 to a loop (including its sub-loops).
170 @item @code{find_common_loop}: Finds the common super-loop of two loops.
171 @item @code{superloop_at_depth}: Returns the super-loop of a loop with
172 the given depth.
173 @item @code{tree_num_loop_insns}, @code{num_loop_insns}: Estimates the
174 number of insns in the loop, on GIMPLE and on RTL.
175 @item @code{loop_exit_edge_p}: Tests whether edge is an exit from a
176 loop.
177 @item @code{mark_loop_exit_edges}: Marks all exit edges of all loops
178 with @code{EDGE_LOOP_EXIT} flag.
179 @item @code{get_loop_body}, @code{get_loop_body_in_dom_order},
180 @code{get_loop_body_in_bfs_order}: Enumerates the basic blocks in the
181 loop in depth-first search order in reversed CFG, ordered by dominance
182 relation, and breath-first search order, respectively.
183 @item @code{single_exit}: Returns the single exit edge of the loop, or
184 @code{NULL} if the loop has more than one exit. You can only use this
185 function if LOOPS_HAVE_MARKED_SINGLE_EXITS property is used.
186 @item @code{get_loop_exit_edges}: Enumerates the exit edges of a loop.
187 @item @code{just_once_each_iteration_p}: Returns true if the basic block
188 is executed exactly once during each iteration of a loop (that is, it
189 does not belong to a sub-loop, and it dominates the latch of the loop).
190 @end itemize
191
192 @node Loop manipulation
193 @section Loop manipulation
194 @cindex Loop manipulation
195
196 The loops tree can be manipulated using the following functions:
197
198 @itemize
199 @item @code{flow_loop_tree_node_add}: Adds a node to the tree.
200 @item @code{flow_loop_tree_node_remove}: Removes a node from the tree.
201 @item @code{add_bb_to_loop}: Adds a basic block to a loop.
202 @item @code{remove_bb_from_loops}: Removes a basic block from loops.
203 @end itemize
204
205 Most low-level CFG functions update loops automatically. The following
206 functions handle some more complicated cases of CFG manipulations:
207
208 @itemize
209 @item @code{remove_path}: Removes an edge and all blocks it dominates.
210 @item @code{split_loop_exit_edge}: Splits exit edge of the loop,
211 ensuring that PHI node arguments remain in the loop (this ensures that
212 loop-closed SSA form is preserved). Only useful on GIMPLE.
213 @end itemize
214
215 Finally, there are some higher-level loop transformations implemented.
216 While some of them are written so that they should work on non-innermost
217 loops, they are mostly untested in that case, and at the moment, they
218 are only reliable for the innermost loops:
219
220 @itemize
221 @item @code{create_iv}: Creates a new induction variable. Only works on
222 GIMPLE. @code{standard_iv_increment_position} can be used to find a
223 suitable place for the iv increment.
224 @item @code{duplicate_loop_to_header_edge},
225 @code{tree_duplicate_loop_to_header_edge}: These functions (on RTL and
226 on GIMPLE) duplicate the body of the loop prescribed number of times on
227 one of the edges entering loop header, thus performing either loop
228 unrolling or loop peeling. @code{can_duplicate_loop_p}
229 (@code{can_unroll_loop_p} on GIMPLE) must be true for the duplicated
230 loop.
231 @item @code{loop_version}, @code{tree_ssa_loop_version}: These function
232 create a copy of a loop, and a branch before them that selects one of
233 them depending on the prescribed condition. This is useful for
234 optimizations that need to verify some assumptions in runtime (one of
235 the copies of the loop is usually left unchanged, while the other one is
236 transformed in some way).
237 @item @code{tree_unroll_loop}: Unrolls the loop, including peeling the
238 extra iterations to make the number of iterations divisible by unroll
239 factor, updating the exit condition, and removing the exits that now
240 cannot be taken. Works only on GIMPLE.
241 @end itemize
242
243 @node LCSSA
244 @section Loop-closed SSA form
245 @cindex LCSSA
246 @cindex Loop-closed SSA form
247
248 Throughout the loop optimizations on tree level, one extra condition is
249 enforced on the SSA form: No SSA name is used outside of the loop in
250 that it is defined. The SSA form satisfying this condition is called
251 ``loop-closed SSA form'' -- LCSSA. To enforce LCSSA, PHI nodes must be
252 created at the exits of the loops for the SSA names that are used
253 outside of them. Only the real operands (not virtual SSA names) are
254 held in LCSSA, in order to save memory.
255
256 There are various benefits of LCSSA:
257
258 @itemize
259 @item Many optimizations (value range analysis, final value
260 replacement) are interested in the values that are defined in the loop
261 and used outside of it, i.e., exactly those for that we create new PHI
262 nodes.
263 @item In induction variable analysis, it is not necessary to specify the
264 loop in that the analysis should be performed -- the scalar evolution
265 analysis always returns the results with respect to the loop in that the
266 SSA name is defined.
267 @item It makes updating of SSA form during loop transformations simpler.
268 Without LCSSA, operations like loop unrolling may force creation of PHI
269 nodes arbitrarily far from the loop, while in LCSSA, the SSA form can be
270 updated locally. However, since we only keep real operands in LCSSA, we
271 cannot use this advantage (we could have local updating of real
272 operands, but it is not much more efficient than to use generic SSA form
273 updating for it as well; the amount of changes to SSA is the same).
274 @end itemize
275
276 However, it also means LCSSA must be updated. This is usually
277 straightforward, unless you create a new value in loop and use it
278 outside, or unless you manipulate loop exit edges (functions are
279 provided to make these manipulations simple).
280 @code{rewrite_into_loop_closed_ssa} is used to rewrite SSA form to
281 LCSSA, and @code{verify_loop_closed_ssa} to check that the invariant of
282 LCSSA is preserved.
283
284 @node Scalar evolutions
285 @section Scalar evolutions
286 @cindex Scalar evolutions
287 @cindex IV analysis on GIMPLE
288
289 Scalar evolutions (SCEV) are used to represent results of induction
290 variable analysis on GIMPLE. They enable us to represent variables with
291 complicated behavior in a simple and consistent way (we only use it to
292 express values of polynomial induction variables, but it is possible to
293 extend it). The interfaces to SCEV analysis are declared in
294 @file{tree-scalar-evolution.h}. To use scalar evolutions analysis,
295 @code{scev_initialize} must be used. To stop using SCEV,
296 @code{scev_finalize} should be used. SCEV analysis caches results in
297 order to save time and memory. This cache however is made invalid by
298 most of the loop transformations, including removal of code. If such a
299 transformation is performed, @code{scev_reset} must be called to clean
300 the caches.
301
302 Given an SSA name, its behavior in loops can be analyzed using the
303 @code{analyze_scalar_evolution} function. The returned SCEV however
304 does not have to be fully analyzed and it may contain references to
305 other SSA names defined in the loop. To resolve these (potentially
306 recursive) references, @code{instantiate_parameters} or
307 @code{resolve_mixers} functions must be used.
308 @code{instantiate_parameters} is useful when you use the results of SCEV
309 only for some analysis, and when you work with whole nest of loops at
310 once. It will try replacing all SSA names by their SCEV in all loops,
311 including the super-loops of the current loop, thus providing a complete
312 information about the behavior of the variable in the loop nest.
313 @code{resolve_mixers} is useful if you work with only one loop at a
314 time, and if you possibly need to create code based on the value of the
315 induction variable. It will only resolve the SSA names defined in the
316 current loop, leaving the SSA names defined outside unchanged, even if
317 their evolution in the outer loops is known.
318
319 The SCEV is a normal tree expression, except for the fact that it may
320 contain several special tree nodes. One of them is
321 @code{SCEV_NOT_KNOWN}, used for SSA names whose value cannot be
322 expressed. The other one is @code{POLYNOMIAL_CHREC}. Polynomial chrec
323 has three arguments -- base, step and loop (both base and step may
324 contain further polynomial chrecs). Type of the expression and of base
325 and step must be the same. A variable has evolution
326 @code{POLYNOMIAL_CHREC(base, step, loop)} if it is (in the specified
327 loop) equivalent to @code{x_1} in the following example
328
329 @smallexample
330 while (...)
331 @{
332 x_1 = phi (base, x_2);
333 x_2 = x_1 + step;
334 @}
335 @end smallexample
336
337 Note that this includes the language restrictions on the operations.
338 For example, if we compile C code and @code{x} has signed type, then the
339 overflow in addition would cause undefined behavior, and we may assume
340 that this does not happen. Hence, the value with this SCEV cannot
341 overflow (which restricts the number of iterations of such a loop).
342
343 In many cases, one wants to restrict the attention just to affine
344 induction variables. In this case, the extra expressive power of SCEV
345 is not useful, and may complicate the optimizations. In this case,
346 @code{simple_iv} function may be used to analyze a value -- the result
347 is a loop-invariant base and step.
348
349 @node loop-iv
350 @section IV analysis on RTL
351 @cindex IV analysis on RTL
352
353 The induction variable on RTL is simple and only allows analysis of
354 affine induction variables, and only in one loop at once. The interface
355 is declared in @file{cfgloop.h}. Before analyzing induction variables
356 in a loop L, @code{iv_analysis_loop_init} function must be called on L.
357 After the analysis (possibly calling @code{iv_analysis_loop_init} for
358 several loops) is finished, @code{iv_analysis_done} should be called.
359 The following functions can be used to access the results of the
360 analysis:
361
362 @itemize
363 @item @code{iv_analyze}: Analyzes a single register used in the given
364 insn. If no use of the register in this insn is found, the following
365 insns are scanned, so that this function can be called on the insn
366 returned by get_condition.
367 @item @code{iv_analyze_result}: Analyzes result of the assignment in the
368 given insn.
369 @item @code{iv_analyze_expr}: Analyzes a more complicated expression.
370 All its operands are analyzed by @code{iv_analyze}, and hence they must
371 be used in the specified insn or one of the following insns.
372 @end itemize
373
374 The description of the induction variable is provided in @code{struct
375 rtx_iv}. In order to handle subregs, the representation is a bit
376 complicated; if the value of the @code{extend} field is not
377 @code{UNKNOWN}, the value of the induction variable in the i-th
378 iteration is
379
380 @smallexample
381 delta + mult * extend_@{extend_mode@} (subreg_@{mode@} (base + i * step)),
382 @end smallexample
383
384 with the following exception: if @code{first_special} is true, then the
385 value in the first iteration (when @code{i} is zero) is @code{delta +
386 mult * base}. However, if @code{extend} is equal to @code{UNKNOWN},
387 then @code{first_special} must be false, @code{delta} 0, @code{mult} 1
388 and the value in the i-th iteration is
389
390 @smallexample
391 subreg_@{mode@} (base + i * step)
392 @end smallexample
393
394 The function @code{get_iv_value} can be used to perform these
395 calculations.
396
397 @node Number of iterations
398 @section Number of iterations analysis
399 @cindex Number of iterations analysis
400
401 Both on GIMPLE and on RTL, there are functions available to determine
402 the number of iterations of a loop, with a similar interface. The
403 number of iterations of a loop in GCC is defined as the number of
404 executions of the loop latch. In many cases, it is not possible to
405 determine the number of iterations unconditionally -- the determined
406 number is correct only if some assumptions are satisfied. The analysis
407 tries to verify these conditions using the information contained in the
408 program; if it fails, the conditions are returned together with the
409 result. The following information and conditions are provided by the
410 analysis:
411
412 @itemize
413 @item @code{assumptions}: If this condition is false, the rest of
414 the information is invalid.
415 @item @code{noloop_assumptions} on RTL, @code{may_be_zero} on GIMPLE: If
416 this condition is true, the loop exits in the first iteration.
417 @item @code{infinite}: If this condition is true, the loop is infinite.
418 This condition is only available on RTL. On GIMPLE, conditions for
419 finiteness of the loop are included in @code{assumptions}.
420 @item @code{niter_expr} on RTL, @code{niter} on GIMPLE: The expression
421 that gives number of iterations. The number of iterations is defined as
422 the number of executions of the loop latch.
423 @end itemize
424
425 Both on GIMPLE and on RTL, it necessary for the induction variable
426 analysis framework to be initialized (SCEV on GIMPLE, loop-iv on RTL).
427 On GIMPLE, the results are stored to @code{struct tree_niter_desc}
428 structure. Number of iterations before the loop is exited through a
429 given exit can be determined using @code{number_of_iterations_exit}
430 function. On RTL, the results are returned in @code{struct niter_desc}
431 structure. The corresponding function is named
432 @code{check_simple_exit}. There are also functions that pass through
433 all the exits of a loop and try to find one with easy to determine
434 number of iterations -- @code{find_loop_niter} on GIMPLE and
435 @code{find_simple_exit} on RTL. Finally, there are functions that
436 provide the same information, but additionally cache it, so that
437 repeated calls to number of iterations are not so costly --
438 @code{number_of_latch_executions} on GIMPLE and @code{get_simple_loop_desc}
439 on RTL.
440
441 Note that some of these functions may behave slightly differently than
442 others -- some of them return only the expression for the number of
443 iterations, and fail if there are some assumptions. The function
444 @code{number_of_latch_executions} works only for single-exit loops.
445 The function @code{number_of_cond_exit_executions} can be used to
446 determine number of executions of the exit condition of a single-exit
447 loop (i.e., the @code{number_of_latch_executions} increased by one).
448
449 @node Dependency analysis
450 @section Data Dependency Analysis
451 @cindex Data Dependency Analysis
452
453 The code for the data dependence analysis can be found in
454 @file{tree-data-ref.c} and its interface and data structures are
455 described in @file{tree-data-ref.h}. The function that computes the
456 data dependences for all the array and pointer references for a given
457 loop is @code{compute_data_dependences_for_loop}. This function is
458 currently used by the linear loop transform and the vectorization
459 passes. Before calling this function, one has to allocate two vectors:
460 a first vector will contain the set of data references that are
461 contained in the analyzed loop body, and the second vector will contain
462 the dependence relations between the data references. Thus if the
463 vector of data references is of size @code{n}, the vector containing the
464 dependence relations will contain @code{n*n} elements. However if the
465 analyzed loop contains side effects, such as calls that potentially can
466 interfere with the data references in the current analyzed loop, the
467 analysis stops while scanning the loop body for data references, and
468 inserts a single @code{chrec_dont_know} in the dependence relation
469 array.
470
471 The data references are discovered in a particular order during the
472 scanning of the loop body: the loop body is analyzed in execution order,
473 and the data references of each statement are pushed at the end of the
474 data reference array. Two data references syntactically occur in the
475 program in the same order as in the array of data references. This
476 syntactic order is important in some classical data dependence tests,
477 and mapping this order to the elements of this array avoids costly
478 queries to the loop body representation.
479
480 Three types of data references are currently handled: ARRAY_REF,
481 INDIRECT_REF and COMPONENT_REF. The data structure for the data reference
482 is @code{data_reference}, where @code{data_reference_p} is a name of a
483 pointer to the data reference structure. The structure contains the
484 following elements:
485
486 @itemize
487 @item @code{base_object_info}: Provides information about the base object
488 of the data reference and its access functions. These access functions
489 represent the evolution of the data reference in the loop relative to
490 its base, in keeping with the classical meaning of the data reference
491 access function for the support of arrays. For example, for a reference
492 @code{a.b[i][j]}, the base object is @code{a.b} and the access functions,
493 one for each array subscript, are:
494 @code{@{i_init, + i_step@}_1, @{j_init, +, j_step@}_2}.
495
496 @item @code{first_location_in_loop}: Provides information about the first
497 location accessed by the data reference in the loop and about the access
498 function used to represent evolution relative to this location. This data
499 is used to support pointers, and is not used for arrays (for which we
500 have base objects). Pointer accesses are represented as a one-dimensional
501 access that starts from the first location accessed in the loop. For
502 example:
503
504 @smallexample
505 for1 i
506 for2 j
507 *((int *)p + i + j) = a[i][j];
508 @end smallexample
509
510 The access function of the pointer access is @code{@{0, + 4B@}_for2}
511 relative to @code{p + i}. The access functions of the array are
512 @code{@{i_init, + i_step@}_for1} and @code{@{j_init, +, j_step@}_for2}
513 relative to @code{a}.
514
515 Usually, the object the pointer refers to is either unknown, or we can't
516 prove that the access is confined to the boundaries of a certain object.
517
518 Two data references can be compared only if at least one of these two
519 representations has all its fields filled for both data references.
520
521 The current strategy for data dependence tests is as follows:
522 If both @code{a} and @code{b} are represented as arrays, compare
523 @code{a.base_object} and @code{b.base_object};
524 if they are equal, apply dependence tests (use access functions based on
525 base_objects).
526 Else if both @code{a} and @code{b} are represented as pointers, compare
527 @code{a.first_location} and @code{b.first_location};
528 if they are equal, apply dependence tests (use access functions based on
529 first location).
530 However, if @code{a} and @code{b} are represented differently, only try
531 to prove that the bases are definitely different.
532
533 @item Aliasing information.
534 @item Alignment information.
535 @end itemize
536
537 The structure describing the relation between two data references is
538 @code{data_dependence_relation} and the shorter name for a pointer to
539 such a structure is @code{ddr_p}. This structure contains:
540
541 @itemize
542 @item a pointer to each data reference,
543 @item a tree node @code{are_dependent} that is set to @code{chrec_known}
544 if the analysis has proved that there is no dependence between these two
545 data references, @code{chrec_dont_know} if the analysis was not able to
546 determine any useful result and potentially there could exist a
547 dependence between these data references, and @code{are_dependent} is
548 set to @code{NULL_TREE} if there exist a dependence relation between the
549 data references, and the description of this dependence relation is
550 given in the @code{subscripts}, @code{dir_vects}, and @code{dist_vects}
551 arrays,
552 @item a boolean that determines whether the dependence relation can be
553 represented by a classical distance vector,
554 @item an array @code{subscripts} that contains a description of each
555 subscript of the data references. Given two array accesses a
556 subscript is the tuple composed of the access functions for a given
557 dimension. For example, given @code{A[f1][f2][f3]} and
558 @code{B[g1][g2][g3]}, there are three subscripts: @code{(f1, g1), (f2,
559 g2), (f3, g3)}.
560 @item two arrays @code{dir_vects} and @code{dist_vects} that contain
561 classical representations of the data dependences under the form of
562 direction and distance dependence vectors,
563 @item an array of loops @code{loop_nest} that contains the loops to
564 which the distance and direction vectors refer to.
565 @end itemize
566
567 Several functions for pretty printing the information extracted by the
568 data dependence analysis are available: @code{dump_ddrs} prints with a
569 maximum verbosity the details of a data dependence relations array,
570 @code{dump_dist_dir_vectors} prints only the classical distance and
571 direction vectors for a data dependence relations array, and
572 @code{dump_data_references} prints the details of the data references
573 contained in a data reference array.
574
575 @node Lambda
576 @section Linear loop transformations framework
577 @cindex Linear loop transformations framework
578
579 Lambda is a framework that allows transformations of loops using
580 non-singular matrix based transformations of the iteration space and
581 loop bounds. This allows compositions of skewing, scaling, interchange,
582 and reversal transformations. These transformations are often used to
583 improve cache behavior or remove inner loop dependencies to allow
584 parallelization and vectorization to take place.
585
586 To perform these transformations, Lambda requires that the loopnest be
587 converted into a internal form that can be matrix transformed easily.
588 To do this conversion, the function
589 @code{gcc_loopnest_to_lambda_loopnest} is provided. If the loop cannot
590 be transformed using lambda, this function will return NULL.
591
592 Once a @code{lambda_loopnest} is obtained from the conversion function,
593 it can be transformed by using @code{lambda_loopnest_transform}, which
594 takes a transformation matrix to apply. Note that it is up to the
595 caller to verify that the transformation matrix is legal to apply to the
596 loop (dependence respecting, etc). Lambda simply applies whatever
597 matrix it is told to provide. It can be extended to make legal matrices
598 out of any non-singular matrix, but this is not currently implemented.
599 Legality of a matrix for a given loopnest can be verified using
600 @code{lambda_transform_legal_p}.
601
602 Given a transformed loopnest, conversion back into gcc IR is done by
603 @code{lambda_loopnest_to_gcc_loopnest}. This function will modify the
604 loops so that they match the transformed loopnest.
605