1 # SVP64 Branch Conditional behaviour
5 * <https://bugs.libre-soc.org/show_bug.cgi?id=664>
6 * <http://lists.libre-soc.org/pipermail/libre-soc-dev/2021-August/003416.html>
7 * [[openpower/isa/branch]]
9 Scalar 3.0B Branch Conditional operations, `bc`, `bctar` etc. test a Condition Register.
10 When doing so in a Vector Context, it is quite reasonable and logical to test a *Vector* of
11 CR Fields. In 3D Shader binaries, which are inherently parallelised
12 and predicated, testing all or some results and branching based on
13 multiple tests is extremely common, and a fundamental part of
15 Therefore, `sv.bc` and other Vector-aware Branch Conditional instructions are worth
18 The `BI` field of Branch Conditional operations is five bits,
19 in scalar v3.0B this would select one bit of the 32 bit CR.
20 In SVP64 there are 16 32 bit CRs, containing 128 4-bit CR Fields.
21 Therefore, the 2 LSBs of `BI` select the bit from the CR Field, and the
22 top 3 bits are extended to either scalar or vector and to
23 select CR Fields 0..127 as specified
24 in SVP64 [[sv/svp64/appendix]]
26 When considering an "array" of branches, there are two useful modes:
28 * Branch takes place on the first CR test to succeed
29 (a Great Big OR of all condition tests)
30 * Branch takes place only if **all** CR tests succeed:
31 a Great Big AND of all condition tests
32 (including those where the predicate is masked out
33 and the corresponding CR Field is considered to be
36 In SVP64 Horizontal-First Mode, the first failure
37 in ALL mode (Great Big AND) results in early exit: no more updates to
38 CTR occur (if requested); no branch occurs. Likewise
39 for non-ALL mode (Great Big Or) on first success early
40 exit also occurs, however this time with the Branch proceeding.
41 In both cases the testing of the Vector of CRs should be
42 done in linear sequential order (or in REMAP re-sequenced order):
43 such that tests that are sequentially beyond the exit point are *not*
46 In Vertical-First Mode, the `ALL` bit should
47 not be used. If set, behaviour is `UNDEFINED`.
48 (*The reason is that Vertical-First hints may permit
49 multiple elements up to hint length to be executed
50 in parallel, however the number is entirely up to
51 implementors. Attempting to test an arbitrary
52 indeterminate number of Conditional tests is impossible
53 to define, and efforts to enforce such defined behaviour
54 interfere with Vertical-First mode parallel
55 opportunistic behaviour.*)
58 the whole CR Field, part of which is
59 selected by `BI` (top 3 bits) is updated based on
60 incrementing srcstep and dststep, and performing the
61 same tests as [[sv/svstep]], following which the Branch
62 Conditional instruction proceeds as normal (reading
63 and testing the CR bit just updated, if the relevant
64 `BO` bit is set). Note that the SVSTATE fields
65 are still updated, and the CR field still updated,
66 even if the `BO` bits do not require CR testing.
68 Predication in both INT and CR modes may be applied to
69 `sv.bc` and other SVP64 Branch Conditional operations,
70 exactly as they may be applied to other SVP64 operations.
71 When `sz` is zero, any masked-out Branch-element operations
72 are not executed, exactly like all other SVP64
75 However when `sz` is non-zero, this normally requests insertion
76 of a zero in place of the input data, when the relevant predicate
77 mask bit is zero. This would mean that a zero is inserted in
78 place of `CR[BI+32]` for testing against `BO`, which may not
79 be desirable in all circumstances. Therefore, an extra field
80 is provided `SNZ`, which, if set, will insert a **one** in
81 place of a masked-out element instead of a zero.
83 (*Note: Both options are provided because it is useful to
84 deliberately cause the Branch-Conditional Vector testing
85 to fail at a specific point, controlled by the Predicate
86 mask. This is particularly useful in `VLSET` mode, which
87 will truncate SVSTATE.VL at the point of the first failed
90 SVP64 RM `MODE` for Branch Conditional:
92 | 0-1 | 2 | 3 4 | description |
93 | --- | --- |---------|-------------------------- |
94 | 00 | SNZ | ALL sz | normal mode |
95 | 01 | VLI | ALL sz | VLSET mode |
96 | 10 | SNZ | ALL sz | svstep mode |
97 | 11 | VLI | ALL sz | svstep VLSET mode, in Horizontal-First |
98 | 11 | VLI | SNZ sz | svstep VLSET mode, in Vertical-First |
102 * **sz** if predication is enabled will put 4 copies of `SNZ` in place of the src CR Field when the predicate bit is zero. otherwise the element is ignored or skipped, depending on context.
103 * **ALL** when set, all branch conditional tests must pass in order for
104 the branch to succeed.
105 * **VLI** In VLSET mode, VL is set equal (truncated) to the first branch
106 which succeeds. If VLI (Vector Length Inclusive) is clear, VL is truncated
107 to *exclude* the current element, otherwise it is included. SVSTATE.MVL is not changed.
109 svstep mode will run an increment of SVSTATE srcstep and dststep
110 (which is still useful in Horizontal First Mode). Unlike `svstep.` however
111 which updates only CR0 with the testing of REMAP loop progress,
112 the CR Field is taken from the branch `BI` field, and updated
113 prior to proceeding to each element branch conditional testing.
115 Note that, interestingly, due to the useful side-effects of `VLSET` mode
116 and `svstep` mode it is actually useful to use Branch Conditional even
117 to perform no actual branch operation, i.e to point to the instruction
120 In particular, svstep mode is still useful for Horizontal-First Mode
121 particularly in combination with REMAP. All "loop end" conditions
122 will be tested on a per-element basis and placed into a Vector of
123 CRs starting from the point specified by the Branch `BI` field.
124 This Vector of CR Fields may then be subsequently used as a Predicate
125 Mask, and, furthermore, if VLSET mode was requested, VL will have
126 been set to the length of one of the loop endpoints, again as specified
127 by the bit from the Branch `BI` field.
129 Also, the unconditional bit `BO[0]` is still relevant when Predication
130 is applied to the Branch because in `ALL` mode all nonmasked bits have
131 to be tested. Even when svstep mode or VLSET mode are not used, CTR
132 may still be decremented by the total number of nonmasked elements.
133 In short, Vectorised Branch becomes an extremely powerful tool.
135 Available options to combine:
137 * `BO[0]` to make an unconditional branch would seem irrelevant if
138 it were not for predication and for side-effects.
139 * `BO[1]` to select whether the CR bit being tested is zero or nonzero
140 * `R30` and `~R30` and other predicate mask options including CR and
141 inverted CR bit testing
142 * `sz` and `SNZ` to insert either zeros or ones in place of masked-out
144 * `ALL` or `ANY` behaviour corresponding to `AND` of all tests and
145 `OR` of all tests, respectively.
147 Pseudocode for Horizontal-First Mode:
150 cond_ok = not SVRMmode.ALL
151 for srcstep in range(VL):
152 new_srcstep, CRbits = SVSTATE_NEXT(srcstep)
153 # select predicate bit or zero/one
154 if predicate[srcstep]:
155 # get SVP64 extended CR field 0..127
156 SVCRf = SVP64EXTRA(BI>>2)
157 CR{SVCRf+srcstep} = CRbits
158 testbit = CRbits[BI & 0b11]
159 # testbit = CR[BI+32+srcstep*4]
160 else if not SVRMmode.sz:
163 testbit = SVRMmode.SNZ
164 # actual element test here
165 el_cond_ok <- BO[0] | ¬(testbit ^ BO[1])
168 cond_ok &= el_cond_ok
170 cond_ok |= el_cond_ok
171 # test for VL to be set (and exit)
172 if ~el_cond_ok and VLSET
174 SVSTATE.VL = srcstep+1
187 Pseudocode for Vertical-First Mode:
190 new_srcstep, CRbits = SVSTATE_NEXT(srcstep)
191 # select predicate bit or zero/one
192 if predicate[srcstep]:
193 # get SVP64 extended CR field 0..127
194 SVCRf = SVP64EXTRA(BI>>2)
195 CR{SVCRf+srcstep} = CRbits
196 testbit = CRbits[BI & 0b11]
197 else if not SVRMmode.sz:
198 SVSTATE.srcstep = new_srcstep
199 exit # no branch testing
201 testbit = SVRMmode.SNZ
202 # actual element test here
203 cond_ok <- BO[0] | ¬(testbit ^ BO[1])
204 # test for VL to be set (and exit)
205 if ~cond_ok and VLSET
207 SVSTATE.VL = new_srcstep+1
209 SVSTATE.VL = new_srcstep
210 SVSTATE.srcstep = new_srcstep
213 # Example Shader code
225 which compiles to something like:
230 pred loop_pred = a > 2;
231 while(loop_pred.any()) {
232 pred if_pred = loop_pred & (b < 5);
237 pred else_pred = loop_pred & ~if_pred;
238 if(else_pred.any()) {
245 which will end up as:
248 sv.cmpi CR60.v a.v, 2 # vector compare a into CR60 vector
249 sv.crweird r30, CR60.GT # transfer GT vector to r30
251 sv.cmpi CR80.v, b.v, 5 # vector compare b into CR64 Vector
252 sv.crand CR80.v.SO, CR60.v.GT, CR80.V.LT
253 sv.bc/m=r30/~ALL/sz CR80.v.SO skip_f # skip when none
256 sv.crnegand CR80.v.SO, CR60.v.GT, CR80.V.LT
257 sv.bc/m=r30/~ALL/sz CR80.v.SO skip_g
261 sv.bc/m=r30/~ALL/sz BO[1]=1 while_loop