opcode-decomp.txt

* How to handle complex IL opcodes in an arch-independent way

	Many IL opcodes are very simple: add, ldind etc.
	Such opcodes can be implemented with a single cpu instruction
	in most architectures (on some, a group of IL instructions
	can be converted to a single cpu op).
	There are many IL opcodes, though, that are more complex, but
	can be expressed as a series of trees or a single tree of
	simple operations. Such simple operations are architecture-independent.
	It makes sense to decompose such complex IL instructions in their
	simpler equivalent so that we gain in several ways:
	*) porting effort is easier, because only the simple instructions 
		need to be implemented in arch-specific code
	*) we could apply BURG rules to the trees and do pattern matching
		on them to optimize the expressions according to the host cpu
	
	The issue is: where do we do such conversion from coarse opcodes to 
	simple expressions?

* Doing the conversion in method_to_ir ()

	Some of these conversions can certainly be done in method_to_ir (),
	but it's not always easy to decide which are better done there and 
	which in a different pass.
	For example, let's take ldlen: in the mono implementation, ldlen
	can be simply implemented with a load from a fixed position in the 
	array object:

		len = [reg + maxlen_offset]
	
	However, ldlen carries also semantics information: the result is the
	length of the array, and since in the CLR arrays are of fixed size,
	this information can be useful to later do bounds check removal.
	If we convert this opcode in method_to_ir () we lost some useful
	information for further optimizations.

	In some other ways, decomposing an opcode in method_to_ir() may
	allow for better optimizations later on (need to come up with an 
	example here ...).

* Doing the conversion in inssel.brg

	Some conversion may be done inside the burg rules: this has the 
	disadvantage that the instruction selector is not run again on
	the resulting expression tree and we could miss some optimization
	(this is what effectively happens with the coarse opcodes in the old 
	jit). This may also interfere with an efficient local register allocator.
	It may be possible to add an extension in monoburg that allows a rule 
	such as:

		recheck: LDLEN (reg) {
			create an expression tree representing LDLEN
			and return it
		}
	
	When the monoburg label process gets back a recheck, it will run
	the labeling again on the resulting expression tree.
	If this is possible at all (and in an efficient way) is a 
	question for dietmar:-)
	It should be noted, though, that this may not always work, since
	some complex IL opcodes may require a series of expression trees
	and handling such cases in monoburg could become quite hairy.
	For example, think of opcode that need to do multiple actions on the 
	same object: this basically means a DUP...
	On the other end, if a complex opcode needs a DUP, monoburg doesn't
	actually need to create trees if it emits the instructions in
	the correct sequence and maintains the right values in the registers
	(usually the values that need a DUP are not changed...). How
	this integrates with the current register allocator is not clear, since
	that assigns registers based on the rule, but the instructions emitted 
	by the rules may be different (this already happens with the current JIT
	where a MULT is replaced with lea etc...).

* Doing it in a separate pass.

	Doing the conversion in a separate pass over the instructions
	is another alternative. This can be done right after method_to_ir ()
	or after the SSA pass (since the IR after the SSA pass should look
	almost like the IR we get back from method_to_ir ()).

	This has the following advantages:
	*) monoburg will handle only the simple opcodes (makes porting easier)
	*) the instruction selection will be run on all the additional trees
	*) it's easier to support coarse opcodes that produce multiple expression 
		trees (and apply the monoburg selector on all of them)
	*) the SSA optimizer will see the original opcodes and will be able to use
		the semantic info associated with them
	
	The disadvantage is that this is a separate pass on the code and
	it takes time (how much has not been measured yet, though).

	With this approach, we may also be able to have C implementations
	of some of the opcodes: this pass would insert a function call to 
	the C implementation (for example in the cases when first porting
	to a new arch and implemenating some stuff may be too hard in asm).

* Extended basic blocks

	IL code needs a lot of checks, bounds checks, overflow checks,
	type checks and so on. This potentially increases by a lot
	the number of basic blocks in a control flow graph. However,
	all such blocks end up with a throw opcode that gives control to the
	exception handling mechanism.
	After method_to_ir () a MonoBasicBlock can be considered a sort
	of extended basic block where the additional exits don't point
	to basic blocks in the same procedure (at least when the method
	doesn't have exception tables).
	We need to make sure the passes following method_to_ir () can cope
	with such kinds of extended basic blocks (especially the passes
	that we need to apply to all the methods: as a start, we could
	skip SSA optimizations for methods with exception clauses...)