Add a small missed optimization: turn X == C ? X : Y into X == C ? C : Y. This
[llvm/stm8.git] / docs / ReleaseNotes.html
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8 <title>LLVM 2.9 Release Notes</title>
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10 <body>
12 <div class="doc_title">LLVM 2.9 Release Notes</div>
14 <img align=right src="http://llvm.org/img/DragonSmall.png"
15 width="136" height="136" alt="LLVM Dragon Logo">
17 <ol>
18 <li><a href="#intro">Introduction</a></li>
19 <li><a href="#subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a></li>
20 <li><a href="#externalproj">External Projects Using LLVM 2.9</a></li>
21 <li><a href="#whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.9?</a></li>
22 <li><a href="GettingStarted.html">Installation Instructions</a></li>
23 <li><a href="#knownproblems">Known Problems</a></li>
24 <li><a href="#additionalinfo">Additional Information</a></li>
25 </ol>
27 <div class="doc_author">
28 <p>Written by the <a href="http://llvm.org">LLVM Team</a></p>
29 </div>
31 <h1 style="color:red">These are in-progress notes for the upcoming LLVM 2.9
32 release.<br>
33 You may prefer the
34 <a href="http://llvm.org/releases/2.8/docs/ReleaseNotes.html">LLVM 2.8
35 Release Notes</a>.</h1>
37 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
38 <div class="doc_section">
39 <a name="intro">Introduction</a>
40 </div>
41 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
43 <div class="doc_text">
45 <p>This document contains the release notes for the LLVM Compiler
46 Infrastructure, release 2.9. Here we describe the status of LLVM, including
47 major improvements from the previous release and significant known problems.
48 All LLVM releases may be downloaded from the <a
49 href="http://llvm.org/releases/">LLVM releases web site</a>.</p>
51 <p>For more information about LLVM, including information about the latest
52 release, please check out the <a href="http://llvm.org/">main LLVM
53 web site</a>. If you have questions or comments, the <a
54 href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVM Developer's
55 Mailing List</a> is a good place to send them.</p>
57 <p>Note that if you are reading this file from a Subversion checkout or the
58 main LLVM web page, this document applies to the <i>next</i> release, not the
59 current one. To see the release notes for a specific release, please see the
60 <a href="http://llvm.org/releases/">releases page</a>.</p>
62 </div>
64 <!-- NOTE: last release for llvm-gcc -->
66 <!--
67 Almost dead code.
68 lib/Transforms/IPO/MergeFunctions.cpp => consider for 3.0.
69 -->
72 <!-- Features that need text if they're finished for 3.0:
73 combiner-aa?
74 strong phi elim
75 loop dependence analysis
76 TBAA
77 CorrelatedValuePropagation
78 -->
80 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
81 <div class="doc_section">
82 <a name="subproj">Sub-project Status Update</a>
83 </div>
84 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
86 <div class="doc_text">
87 <p>
88 The LLVM 2.9 distribution currently consists of code from the core LLVM
89 repository (which roughly includes the LLVM optimizers, code generators
90 and supporting tools), the Clang repository and the llvm-gcc repository. In
91 addition to this code, the LLVM Project includes other sub-projects that are in
92 development. Here we include updates on these subprojects.
93 </p>
95 </div>
98 <!--=========================================================================-->
99 <div class="doc_subsection">
100 <a name="clang">Clang: C/C++/Objective-C Frontend Toolkit</a>
101 </div>
103 <div class="doc_text">
105 <p><a href="http://clang.llvm.org/">Clang</a> is an LLVM front end for the C,
106 C++, and Objective-C languages. Clang aims to provide a better user experience
107 through expressive diagnostics, a high level of conformance to language
108 standards, fast compilation, and low memory use. Like LLVM, Clang provides a
109 modular, library-based architecture that makes it suitable for creating or
110 integrating with other development tools. Clang is considered a
111 production-quality compiler for C, Objective-C, C++ and Objective-C++ on x86
112 (32- and 64-bit), and for darwin-arm targets.</p>
114 <p>In the LLVM 2.9 time-frame, the Clang team has made many improvements:</p>
116 <ul>
117 </ul>
118 </div>
120 <!--=========================================================================-->
121 <div class="doc_subsection">
122 <a name="clangsa">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
123 </div>
125 <div class="doc_text">
127 <p>The <a href="http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/">Clang Static Analyzer</a>
128 project is an effort to use static source code analysis techniques to
129 automatically find bugs in C and Objective-C programs (and hopefully <a
130 href="http://clang-analyzer.llvm.org/dev_cxx.html">C++ in the
131 future</a>!). The tool is very good at finding bugs that occur on specific
132 paths through code, such as on error conditions.</p>
134 <p>The LLVM 2.9 release...
135 </p>
137 </div>
139 <!--=========================================================================-->
140 <div class="doc_subsection">
141 <a name="dragonegg">DragonEgg: llvm-gcc ported to gcc-4.5</a>
142 </div>
144 <div class="doc_text">
145 NOTE: This should be written to be self-contained without referencing llvm-gcc.
148 <a href="http://dragonegg.llvm.org/">DragonEgg</a> is a port of llvm-gcc to
149 gcc-4.5. Unlike llvm-gcc, dragonegg in theory does not require any gcc-4.5
150 modifications whatsoever (currently one small patch is needed) thanks to the
151 new <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/plugins">gcc plugin architecture</a>.
152 DragonEgg is a gcc plugin that makes gcc-4.5 use the LLVM optimizers and code
153 generators instead of gcc's, just like with llvm-gcc.
154 </p>
157 DragonEgg is still a work in progress, but it is able to compile a lot of code,
158 for example all of gcc, LLVM and clang. Currently Ada, C, C++ and Fortran work
159 well, while all other languages either don't work at all or only work poorly.
160 For the moment only the x86-32 and x86-64 targets are supported, and only on
161 linux and darwin (darwin may need additional gcc patches).
162 </p>
165 The 2.9 release has the following notable changes:
166 <ul>
167 </ul>
169 </div>
171 <!--=========================================================================-->
172 <div class="doc_subsection">
173 <a name="vmkit">VMKit: JVM Virtual Machine Implementation</a>
174 </div>
176 <div class="doc_text">
178 The <a href="http://vmkit.llvm.org/">VMKit project</a> is an implementation of
179 a Java Virtual Machine (Java VM or JVM) that uses LLVM for static and
180 just-in-time compilation.
182 UPDATE.
183 </p>
184 </div>
186 <!--=========================================================================-->
187 <div class="doc_subsection">
188 <a name="compiler-rt">compiler-rt: Compiler Runtime Library</a>
189 </div>
191 <div class="doc_text">
193 The new LLVM <a href="http://compiler-rt.llvm.org/">compiler-rt project</a>
194 is a simple library that provides an implementation of the low-level
195 target-specific hooks required by code generation and other runtime components.
196 For example, when compiling for a 32-bit target, converting a double to a 64-bit
197 unsigned integer is compiled into a runtime call to the "__fixunsdfdi"
198 function. The compiler-rt library provides highly optimized implementations of
199 this and other low-level routines (some are 3x faster than the equivalent
200 libgcc routines).</p>
203 All of the code in the compiler-rt project is available under the standard LLVM
204 License, a "BSD-style" license.
206 NEW: MIT License as well.
208 New in LLVM 2.9, UPDATE</p>
210 </div>
212 <!--=========================================================================-->
213 <div class="doc_subsection">
214 <a name="lldb">LLDB: Low Level Debugger</a>
215 </div>
217 <div class="doc_text">
219 <a href="http://lldb.llvm.org/">LLDB</a> is a brand new member of the LLVM
220 umbrella of projects. LLDB is a next generation, high-performance debugger. It
221 is built as a set of reusable components which highly leverage existing
222 libraries in the larger LLVM Project, such as the Clang expression parser, the
223 LLVM disassembler and the LLVM JIT.</p>
226 LLDB is in early development and not included as part of the LLVM 2.9 release,
227 UPDATE!
229 <!--
230 but is mature enough to support basic debugging scenarios on Mac OS X in C,
231 Objective-C and C++. We'd really like help extending and expanding LLDB to
232 support new platforms, new languages, new architectures, and new features.-->
233 </p>
235 </div>
237 <!--=========================================================================-->
238 <div class="doc_subsection">
239 <a name="libc++">libc++: C++ Standard Library</a>
240 </div>
242 <div class="doc_text">
244 <a href="http://libcxx.llvm.org/">libc++</a> is another new member of the LLVM
245 family. It is an implementation of the C++ standard library, written from the
246 ground up to specifically target the forthcoming C++'0X standard and focus on
247 delivering great performance.</p>
250 As of the LLVM 2.9 release, UPDATE!
252 <!--libc++ is virtually feature complete, but would
253 benefit from more testing and better integration with Clang++. It is also
254 looking forward to the C++ committee finalizing the C++'0x standard.-->
255 </p>
257 </div>
261 <!--=========================================================================-->
262 <div class="doc_subsection">
263 <a name="klee">KLEE: A Symbolic Execution Virtual Machine</a>
264 </div>
266 <div class="doc_text">
268 <a href="http://klee.llvm.org/">KLEE</a> is a symbolic execution framework for
269 programs in LLVM bitcode form. KLEE tries to symbolically evaluate "all" paths
270 through the application and records state transitions that lead to fault
271 states. This allows it to construct testcases that lead to faults and can even
272 be used to verify some algorithms.
273 </p>
275 <p>UPDATE!</p>
277 </div>
280 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
281 <div class="doc_section">
282 <a name="externalproj">External Open Source Projects Using LLVM 2.9</a>
283 </div>
284 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
286 <div class="doc_text">
288 <p>An exciting aspect of LLVM is that it is used as an enabling technology for
289 a lot of other language and tools projects. This section lists some of the
290 projects that have already been updated to work with LLVM 2.9.</p>
291 </div>
296 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
297 <div class="doc_section">
298 <a name="whatsnew">What's New in LLVM 2.9?</a>
299 </div>
300 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
302 <div class="doc_text">
304 <p>This release includes a huge number of bug fixes, performance tweaks and
305 minor improvements. Some of the major improvements and new features are listed
306 in this section.
307 </p>
309 </div>
311 <!--=========================================================================-->
312 <div class="doc_subsection">
313 <a name="majorfeatures">Major New Features</a>
314 </div>
316 <div class="doc_text">
318 <p>LLVM 2.9 includes several major new capabilities:</p>
320 <ul>
321 </ul>
323 </div>
325 <!--=========================================================================-->
326 <div class="doc_subsection">
327 <a name="coreimprovements">LLVM IR and Core Improvements</a>
328 </div>
330 <div class="doc_text">
331 <p>LLVM IR has several new features for better support of new targets and that
332 expose new optimization opportunities:</p>
334 <ul>
335 </ul>
337 </div>
339 <!--=========================================================================-->
340 <div class="doc_subsection">
341 <a name="optimizer">Optimizer Improvements</a>
342 </div>
344 <div class="doc_text">
346 <p>In addition to a large array of minor performance tweaks and bug fixes, this
347 release includes a few major enhancements and additions to the optimizers:</p>
349 <ul>
350 <li>TBAA.</li>
351 <li>LTO has been improved to use MC for parsing inline asm and now
352 can build large programs like Firefox 4 on both OS X and Linux.</li>
353 </ul>
355 <!--
356 <p>In addition to these features that are done in 2.8, there is preliminary
357 support in the release for Type Based Alias Analysis
358 Preliminary work on TBAA but not usable in 2.8.
359 New CorrelatedValuePropagation pass, not on by default in 2.8 yet.
362 </div>
364 <!--=========================================================================-->
365 <div class="doc_subsection">
366 <a name="mc">MC Level Improvements</a>
367 </div>
369 <div class="doc_text">
371 The LLVM Machine Code (aka MC) subsystem was created to solve a number
372 of problems in the realm of assembly, disassembly, object file format handling,
373 and a number of other related areas that CPU instruction-set level tools work
374 in.</p>
376 <ul>
377 <li>MC is now used by default for ELF systems on x86 and
378 x86-64.</li>
379 <li>MC supports and CodeGen uses the <tt>.loc</tt> directives for
380 producing line number debug info. This produces more compact line
381 tables.</li>
382 <li>MC supports the <tt>.cfi_*</tt> directives for producing DWARF
383 frame information, but it is still not used by CodeGen by default.</li>
384 <li>COFF support?</li>
385 </ul>
387 <p>For more information, please see the <a
388 href="http://blog.llvm.org/2010/04/intro-to-llvm-mc-project.html">Intro to the
389 LLVM MC Project Blog Post</a>.
390 </p>
392 </div>
395 <!--=========================================================================-->
396 <div class="doc_subsection">
397 <a name="codegen">Target Independent Code Generator Improvements</a>
398 </div>
400 <div class="doc_text">
402 <p>We have put a significant amount of work into the code generator
403 infrastructure, which allows us to implement more aggressive algorithms and make
404 it run faster:</p>
406 <ul>
407 <!-- SplitKit -->
408 FastISel for ARM.
409 </ul>
410 </div>
412 <!--=========================================================================-->
413 <div class="doc_subsection">
414 <a name="x86">X86-32 and X86-64 Target Improvements</a>
415 </div>
417 <div class="doc_text">
418 <p>New features and major changes in the X86 target include:
419 </p>
421 <ul>
422 </ul>
424 </div>
426 <!--=========================================================================-->
427 <div class="doc_subsection">
428 <a name="ARM">ARM Target Improvements</a>
429 </div>
431 <div class="doc_text">
432 <p>New features of the ARM target include:
433 </p>
435 <ul>
436 </ul>
437 </div>
440 <!--=========================================================================-->
441 <div class="doc_subsection">
442 <a name="changes">Major Changes and Removed Features</a>
443 </div>
445 <div class="doc_text">
447 <p>If you're already an LLVM user or developer with out-of-tree changes based
448 on LLVM 2.8, this section lists some "gotchas" that you may run into upgrading
449 from the previous release.</p>
451 <ul>
452 </ul>
456 <p>In addition, many APIs have changed in this release. Some of the major LLVM
457 API changes are:</p>
458 <ul>
459 </ul>
461 </div>
463 <!--=========================================================================-->
464 <div class="doc_subsection">
465 <a name="devtree_changes">Development Infrastructure Changes</a>
466 </div>
468 <div class="doc_text">
470 <p>This section lists changes to the LLVM development infrastructure. This
471 mostly impacts users who actively work on LLVM or follow development on
472 mainline, but may also impact users who leverage the LLVM build infrastructure
473 or are interested in LLVM qualification.</p>
475 <ul>
476 </ul>
477 </div>
479 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
480 <div class="doc_section">
481 <a name="knownproblems">Known Problems</a>
482 </div>
483 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
485 <div class="doc_text">
487 <p>This section contains significant known problems with the LLVM system,
488 listed by component. If you run into a problem, please check the <a
489 href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">LLVM bug database</a> and submit a bug if
490 there isn't already one.</p>
492 </div>
494 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
495 <div class="doc_subsection">
496 <a name="experimental">Experimental features included with this release</a>
497 </div>
499 <div class="doc_text">
501 <p>The following components of this LLVM release are either untested, known to
502 be broken or unreliable, or are in early development. These components should
503 not be relied on, and bugs should not be filed against them, but they may be
504 useful to some people. In particular, if you would like to work on one of these
505 components, please contact us on the <a
506 href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/llvmdev">LLVMdev list</a>.</p>
508 <ul>
509 <li>The Alpha, Blackfin, CellSPU, MicroBlaze, MSP430, MIPS, PTX, SystemZ
510 and XCore backends are experimental.</li>
511 <li><tt>llc</tt> "<tt>-filetype=obj</tt>" is experimental on all targets
512 other than darwin-i386 and darwin-x86_64. FIXME: Not true on ELF anymore?</li>
514 </ul>
516 </div>
518 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
519 <div class="doc_subsection">
520 <a name="x86-be">Known problems with the X86 back-end</a>
521 </div>
523 <div class="doc_text">
525 <ul>
526 <li>The X86 backend does not yet support
527 all <a href="http://llvm.org/PR879">inline assembly that uses the X86
528 floating point stack</a>. It supports the 'f' and 't' constraints, but not
529 'u'.</li>
530 <li>Win64 code generation wasn't widely tested. Everything should work, but we
531 expect small issues to happen. Also, llvm-gcc cannot build the mingw64
532 runtime currently due to lack of support for the 'u' inline assembly
533 constraint and for X87 floating point inline assembly.</li>
534 <li>The X86-64 backend does not yet support the LLVM IR instruction
535 <tt>va_arg</tt>. Currently, front-ends support variadic
536 argument constructs on X86-64 by lowering them manually.</li>
537 </ul>
539 </div>
541 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
542 <div class="doc_subsection">
543 <a name="ppc-be">Known problems with the PowerPC back-end</a>
544 </div>
546 <div class="doc_text">
548 <ul>
549 <li>The Linux PPC32/ABI support needs testing for the interpreter and static
550 compilation, and lacks support for debug information.</li>
551 </ul>
553 </div>
555 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
556 <div class="doc_subsection">
557 <a name="arm-be">Known problems with the ARM back-end</a>
558 </div>
560 <div class="doc_text">
562 <ul>
563 <li>Thumb mode works only on ARMv6 or higher processors. On sub-ARMv6
564 processors, thumb programs can crash or produce wrong
565 results (<a href="http://llvm.org/PR1388">PR1388</a>).</li>
566 <li>Compilation for ARM Linux OABI (old ABI) is supported but not fully tested.
567 </li>
568 </ul>
570 </div>
572 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
573 <div class="doc_subsection">
574 <a name="sparc-be">Known problems with the SPARC back-end</a>
575 </div>
577 <div class="doc_text">
579 <ul>
580 <li>The SPARC backend only supports the 32-bit SPARC ABI (-m32); it does not
581 support the 64-bit SPARC ABI (-m64).</li>
582 </ul>
584 </div>
586 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
587 <div class="doc_subsection">
588 <a name="mips-be">Known problems with the MIPS back-end</a>
589 </div>
591 <div class="doc_text">
593 <ul>
594 <li>64-bit MIPS targets are not supported yet.</li>
595 </ul>
597 </div>
599 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
600 <div class="doc_subsection">
601 <a name="alpha-be">Known problems with the Alpha back-end</a>
602 </div>
604 <div class="doc_text">
606 <ul>
608 <li>On 21164s, some rare FP arithmetic sequences which may trap do not have the
609 appropriate nops inserted to ensure restartability.</li>
611 </ul>
612 </div>
614 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
615 <div class="doc_subsection">
616 <a name="c-be">Known problems with the C back-end</a>
617 </div>
619 <div class="doc_text">
621 <p>The C backend has numerous problems and is not being actively maintained.
622 Depending on it for anything serious is not advised.</p>
624 <ul>
625 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR802">The C backend has only basic support for
626 inline assembly code</a>.</li>
627 <li><a href="http://llvm.org/PR1658">The C backend violates the ABI of common
628 C++ programs</a>, preventing intermixing between C++ compiled by the CBE and
629 C++ code compiled with <tt>llc</tt> or native compilers.</li>
630 <li>The C backend does not support all exception handling constructs.</li>
631 <li>The C backend does not support arbitrary precision integers.</li>
632 </ul>
634 </div>
637 <!-- ======================================================================= -->
638 <div class="doc_subsection">
639 <a name="llvm-gcc">Known problems with the llvm-gcc front-end</a>
640 </div>
642 <div class="doc_text">
644 <p>llvm-gcc is generally very stable for the C family of languages. The only
645 major language feature of GCC not supported by llvm-gcc is the
646 <tt>__builtin_apply</tt> family of builtins. However, some extensions
647 are only supported on some targets. For example, trampolines are only
648 supported on some targets (these are used when you take the address of a
649 nested function).</p>
651 <p>Fortran support generally works, but there are still several unresolved bugs
652 in <a href="http://llvm.org/bugs/">Bugzilla</a>. Please see the
653 tools/gfortran component for details. Note that llvm-gcc is missing major
654 Fortran performance work in the frontend and library that went into GCC after
655 4.2. If you are interested in Fortran, we recommend that you consider using
656 <a href="#dragonegg">dragonegg</a> instead.</p>
658 <p>The llvm-gcc 4.2 Ada compiler has basic functionality, but is no longer being
659 actively maintained. If you are interested in Ada, we recommend that you
660 consider using <a href="#dragonegg">dragonegg</a> instead.</p>
661 </div>
663 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
664 <div class="doc_section">
665 <a name="additionalinfo">Additional Information</a>
666 </div>
667 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
669 <div class="doc_text">
671 <p>A wide variety of additional information is available on the <a
672 href="http://llvm.org">LLVM web page</a>, in particular in the <a
673 href="http://llvm.org/docs/">documentation</a> section. The web page also
674 contains versions of the API documentation which is up-to-date with the
675 Subversion version of the source code.
676 You can access versions of these documents specific to this release by going
677 into the "<tt>llvm/doc/</tt>" directory in the LLVM tree.</p>
679 <p>If you have any questions or comments about LLVM, please feel free to contact
680 us via the <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/#maillist"> mailing
681 lists</a>.</p>
683 </div>
685 <!-- *********************************************************************** -->
687 <hr>
688 <address>
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