# Unofficial GCN/RDNA ISA reference errata ## v_sad_u32 The Vega ISA reference writes it's behaviour as: ``` D.u = abs(S0.i - S1.i) + S2.u. ``` This is incorrect. The actual behaviour is what is written in the GCN3 reference guide: ``` ABS_DIFF (A,B) = (A>B) ? (A-B) : (B-A) D.u = ABS_DIFF (S0.u,S1.u) + S2.u ``` The instruction doesn't subtract the S0 and S1 and use the absolute value (the _signed_ distance), it uses the _unsigned_ distance between the operands. So `v_sad_u32(-5, 0, 0)` would return `4294967291` (`-5` interpreted as unsigned), not `5`. ## s_bfe_* Both the Vega and GCN3 ISA references write that these instructions don't write SCC. They do. ## v_bcnt_u32_b32 The Vega ISA reference writes it's behaviour as: ``` D.u = 0; for i in 0 ... 31 do D.u += (S0.u[i] == 1 ? 1 : 0); endfor. ``` This is incorrect. The actual behaviour (and number of operands) is what is written in the GCN3 reference guide: ``` D.u = CountOneBits(S0.u) + S1.u. ``` ## SMEM stores The Vega ISA references doesn't say this (or doesn't make it clear), but the offset for SMEM stores must be in m0 if IMM == 0. The RDNA ISA doesn't mention SMEM stores at all, but they seem to be supported by the chip and are present in LLVM. AMD devs however highly recommend avoiding these instructions. ## SMEM atomics RDNA ISA: same as the SMEM stores, the ISA pretends they don't exist, but they are there in LLVM. ## VMEM stores All reference guides say (under "Vector Memory Instruction Data Dependencies"): > When a VM instruction is issued, the address is immediately read out of VGPRs > and sent to the texture cache. Any texture or buffer resources and samplers > are also sent immediately. However, write-data is not immediately sent to the > texture cache. Reading that, one might think that waitcnts need to be added when writing to the registers used for a VMEM store's data. Experimentation has shown that this does not seem to be the case on GFX8 and GFX9 (GFX6 and GFX7 are untested). It also seems unlikely, since NOPs are apparently needed in a subset of these situations. ## MIMG opcodes on GFX8/GCN3 The `image_atomic_{swap,cmpswap,add,sub}` opcodes in the GCN3 ISA reference guide are incorrect. The Vega ISA reference guide has the correct ones. ## VINTRP encoding VEGA ISA doc says the encoding should be `110010` but `110101` works. ## VOP1 instructions encoded as VOP3 RDNA ISA doc says that `0x140` should be added to the opcode, but that doesn't work. What works is adding `0x180`, which LLVM also does. ## FLAT, Scratch, Global instructions The NV bit was removed in RDNA, but some parts of the doc still mention it. RDNA ISA doc 13.8.1 says that SADDR should be set to 0x7f when ADDR is used, but 9.3.1 says it should be set to NULL. We assume 9.3.1 is correct and set it to SGPR_NULL. ## Legacy instructions Some instructions have a `_LEGACY` variant which implements "DX9 rules", in which the zero "wins" in multiplications, ie. `0.0*x` is always `0.0`. The VEGA ISA mentions `V_MAC_LEGACY_F32` but this instruction is not really there on VEGA. ## RDNA L0, L1 cache and DLC, GLC bits The old L1 cache was renamed to L0, and a new L1 cache was added to RDNA. The L1 cache is 1 cache per shader array. Some instruction encodings have DLC and GLC bits that interact with the cache. * DLC ("device level coherent") bit: controls the L1 cache * GLC ("globally coherent") bit: controls the L0 cache The recommendation from AMD devs is to always set these two bits at the same time, as it doesn't make too much sense to set them independently, aside from some circumstances (eg. we needn't set DLC when only one shader array is used). Stores and atomics always bypass the L1 cache, so they don't support the DLC bit, and it shouldn't be set in these cases. Setting the DLC for these cases can result in graphical glitches. # Hardware Bugs ## SMEM corrupts VCCZ on SI/CI https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/blob/acb089e12ae48b82c0b05c42326196a030df9b82/llvm/lib/Target/AMDGPU/SIInsertWaits.cpp#L580-L616 After issuing a SMEM instructions, we need to wait for the SMEM instructions to finish and then write to vcc (for example, `s_mov_b64 vcc, vcc`) to correct vccz Currently, we don't do this.