3 In the late 1980s [[!wikipedia IBM]] developed a POWER family of processors.
4 This evolved to a specification known as the POWER ISA. In 2019 IBM made the POWER ISA [[!wikipedia Open_source]], to be looked after by the existing [[!wikipedia OpenPOWER_Foundation]]. Here is a longer history of [[!wikipedia IBM_POWER_microprocessors]]. These IBM proprietary processors
5 happen to implement what is now known as the POWER ISA. The names
6 POWER8, POWER9, POWER10 etc. are product designations equivalent to Intel
7 i5, i7, i9 etc. and are frequently conflated with versions of the POWER ISA (v2.07, v3.0c, v3.1b).
9 Libre-SOC is basing its [[Simple-V Vectorisation|sv]] CPU extensions on POWER ISA, because it wants to be able to specify a machine that can be completely trusted, and because POWER, thanks to IBM's involvement,
10 is designed for high performance.
13 <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_ISA>
15 very useful resource describing all assembly instructions
16 <https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/aix/7.1?topic=reference-instruction-set>
20 EULA released! looks good.
21 <https://openpowerfoundation.org/final-draft-of-the-power-isa-eula-released/>
25 * OpenPOWER Membership
26 <https://openpowerfoundation.org/join/>
27 * OpenPower HDL Mailing list <http://lists.mailinglist.openpowerfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/openpower-hdl-cores>
28 * [[openpower/isatables]]
29 * [[openpower/whitepapers]]
30 * [[openpower/isa]] - pseudo-code extracted from POWER V3.0B PDF spec
33 * [[openpower/prefix_codes]] Decode/encode prefix-codes, used by JPEG, DEFLATE, etc.
34 * [[openpower/opcode_regs_deduped]]
35 * [[openpower/simd_vsx]]
36 * [[openpower/ISA_WG]] - OpenPOWER ISA Working Group
37 * [[openpower/pearpc]]
38 * [[openpower/pipeline_operands]] - the allocation of operands on each pipeline
39 * [[3d_gpu/architecture/decoder]]
40 * <https://forums.raptorcs.com/>
41 * <http://lists.mailinglist.openpowerfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/openpower-community-dev>
42 * <http://lists.mailinglist.openpowerfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo>
43 * <http://bugs.libre-riscv.org/show_bug.cgi?id=179>
44 * <https://openpowerfoundation.org/?resource_lib=power-isa-version-3-0>
45 * <https://openpowerfoundation.org/?resource_lib=ibm-power-isa-version-2-07-b>
49 * <https://github.com/lioncash/DolphinPPCTests>
50 * <https://github.com/JustinCB/macemu/blob/master/SheepShaver/src/kpx_cpu/src/test/test-powerpc.cpp>
54 * FP32 is converted to FP64. Requires SimpleV to be active.
56 * transcendental FP opcodes needed (sin, cos, atan2, root, log1p)
57 * FCVT between 16/32/64 needed
58 * c++11 atomics not very efficient
59 * no 16/48/64 opcodes, needs a shuffle of opcodes. TODO investigate Power VLE
60 * needs escape sequencing (ISAMUX/NS) - see [[openpower/isans_letter]]
62 # What we are *NOT* doing:
64 * A processor that is fundamentally incompatible (noncompliant) with Power.
65 (**escape-sequencing requires and guarantees compatibility**).
66 * Opcode 4 Signal Processing (SPE)
67 * Opcode 4 Vectors or Opcode 60 VSX (600+ additional instructions)
68 * Avoidable legacy opcodes
74 SimpleV: a "hardware for-loop" which involves type-casting (both) the
75 register files to "a sequence of elements". The **one** instruction
76 (an unmodified **scalar** instruction) is interpreted as a *hardware
77 for-loop* that issues **multiple** internal instructions with
78 sequentially-incrementing register numbers.
80 Thus it is completely unnecessary to add any vector opcodes - at all -
81 saving hugely on both hardware and compiler development time when
82 the concept is dropped on top of a pre-existing ISA.
84 # Integer Overflow / Saturate
86 Typically used on vector operations (audio DSP), it makes no sense to have separate opcodes (Opcode 4 SPE). To be done instead as CSRs / vector-flags on *standard* arithmetic operations.
90 Single instruction on RV, and x86, but multiple on Power. Needs investigation, particularly as to why cache flush exists.
92 https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pes20/cpp/cpp0xmappings.html
94 Hot loops contain significant instruction count, really need new c++11 atomics. To be proposed as new extension because other OpenPower members will need them too
98 Doesn't exist in Power, need to work out suitable opcodes, basically means duplicating the entire range of FP32/64 ops, symmetrically.
100 Usually done with a fmt field, 2 bit, last one is FP128
102 idea: rather than add dozens of new opcodes, add "repurposer" instructions that remap FP32 to 16/32/64/128 and FP64 likewise. can also be done as C instruction, only needs 4 bits to specify.
106 aka "ISAMUX/NS". Absolutely critical, also to have official endorsement
107 from OpenPower Foundation.
109 This will allow extending ISA (see ISAMUX/NS) in a clean fashion
110 (including for and by OpenPower Foundation)
112 ## Branches in namespaces
114 Branches are fine as it is up to the compiler to decide whether to let the
115 ISAMUX/NS/escape-sequence countdown run out.
117 This is all a software / compiler / ABI issue.
119 ## Function calls in namespaces
121 Storing and restoring the state of the page/subpage CSR should be done by the caller. Or, again, let the countdowns run out.
123 If certain alternative configs are expected, they are part of the function ABI which must be spec'd.
125 All of this is a software issue (compiler / ABI).
127 # Compressed, 48, 64, VBLOCK
129 TODO investigate Power VLE (Freescale doc Ref 314-68105)
131 Under Esc Seq, move mulli, twi, tdi out of major OP000 then use the
132 entire row, 2 bits instead of 3. greatly simplifies decoder.
134 * OP 000-000 and 000-001 for 16 bit compressed, 11 bit instructions
135 * OP 000-010 and 000-011 for 48 bit. 11 bits for SVP P48
136 * OP 000-100 and 000-201 for 64 bit. 11 bits for SVP P64
137 * OP 000-110 and 000-111 for VBLOCK. 11 bits available.
139 Note that this requires BE instruction encoding (separate from
140 data BE/LE encoding). BE encoding always places the major opcode in
141 the first 2 bytes of the raw (uninterpreted) sequential instruction
144 Thus in BE-instruction-mode, the first 2 bytes may be analysed to
145 detect whether the instruction is 16-bit Compressed, 48-bit SVP-P48,
146 64-bit SVP-64, variable-length VBLOCK, or plain 32-bit.
148 It is not possible to distinguish LE-encoded 32-bit instructions
149 from LE-encoded 16-bit instructions because in LE-encoded 32-bit
150 instructions, the opcode falls into:
152 * bytes 2 and 3 of any given raw (uninterpreted) sequential instruction
153 byte stream for a 32-bit instruction
154 * bytes 0 and 1 for a 16-bit Compressed instruction
155 * bytes 4 and 5 for a 48-bit SVP P48
156 * bytes 6 and 7 for a 64-bit SVP P64
158 Clearly this is an impossible situation, therefore BE is the only
159 option. Note: *this is completely separate from BE/LE for data*
163 Further "escape-sequencing".
165 Only 11 bits available. Idea: have "pages" where one instruction selects
166 the page number. It also specifies for how long that page is activated
167 (terminated on a branch)
169 The length to be a maximum of 4 bits, where 0b1111 indicates "permanently active".
171 Perhaps split OP000-000 and OP000-001 so that 2 pages can be active.
173 Store activation length in a CSR.
175 2nd idea: 11 bits can be used for extremely common operations, then length-encoding page selection for further ops, using the full 16 bit range and an entirely new encoding scheme. 1 bit specifies which of 2 pages was selected?
177 3rd idea: "stack" mechanism. Allow subpages like a stack, to page in new pages.
179 3 bits for subpage number. 4 bits for length, gives 7 bits. 4x7 is 28, then 3 bits can be used to specify "stack depth".
181 Requirements are to have one instruction in each subpage which resets all the way back to PowerISA default. The other is a "back up stack by 1".