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+.. _code_generator:
+
+.. role:: raw-html(raw)
+   :format: html
+
+.. raw:: html
+
+  <style>
+    .unknown { background-color: #C0C0C0; text-align: center; }
+    .unknown:before { content: "?" }
+    .no { background-color: #C11B17 }
+    .no:before { content: "N" }
+    .partial { background-color: #F88017 }
+    .yes { background-color: #0F0; }
+    .yes:before { content: "Y" }
+  </style>
+
+==========================================
+The LLVM Target-Independent Code Generator
+==========================================
+
+.. contents::
+   :local:
+
+.. warning::
+  This is a work in progress.
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+The LLVM target-independent code generator is a framework that provides a suite
+of reusable components for translating the LLVM internal representation to the
+machine code for a specified target---either in assembly form (suitable for a
+static compiler) or in binary machine code format (usable for a JIT
+compiler). The LLVM target-independent code generator consists of six main
+components:
+
+1. `Abstract target description`_ interfaces which capture important properties
+   about various aspects of the machine, independently of how they will be used.
+   These interfaces are defined in ``include/llvm/Target/``.
+
+2. Classes used to represent the `code being generated`_ for a target.  These
+   classes are intended to be abstract enough to represent the machine code for
+   *any* target machine.  These classes are defined in
+   ``include/llvm/CodeGen/``. At this level, concepts like "constant pool
+   entries" and "jump tables" are explicitly exposed.
+
+3. Classes and algorithms used to represent code as the object file level, the
+   `MC Layer`_.  These classes represent assembly level constructs like labels,
+   sections, and instructions.  At this level, concepts like "constant pool
+   entries" and "jump tables" don't exist.
+
+4. `Target-independent algorithms`_ used to implement various phases of native
+   code generation (register allocation, scheduling, stack frame representation,
+   etc).  This code lives in ``lib/CodeGen/``.
+
+5. `Implementations of the abstract target description interfaces`_ for
+   particular targets.  These machine descriptions make use of the components
+   provided by LLVM, and can optionally provide custom target-specific passes,
+   to build complete code generators for a specific target.  Target descriptions
+   live in ``lib/Target/``.
+
+6. The target-independent JIT components.  The LLVM JIT is completely target
+   independent (it uses the ``TargetJITInfo`` structure to interface for
+   target-specific issues.  The code for the target-independent JIT lives in
+   ``lib/ExecutionEngine/JIT``.
+
+Depending on which part of the code generator you are interested in working on,
+different pieces of this will be useful to you.  In any case, you should be
+familiar with the `target description`_ and `machine code representation`_
+classes.  If you want to add a backend for a new target, you will need to
+`implement the target description`_ classes for your new target and understand
+the `LLVM code representation <LangRef.html>`_.  If you are interested in
+implementing a new `code generation algorithm`_, it should only depend on the
+target-description and machine code representation classes, ensuring that it is
+portable.
+
+Required components in the code generator
+-----------------------------------------
+
+The two pieces of the LLVM code generator are the high-level interface to the
+code generator and the set of reusable components that can be used to build
+target-specific backends.  The two most important interfaces (:raw-html:`<tt>`
+`TargetMachine`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` and :raw-html:`<tt>` `TargetData`_
+:raw-html:`</tt>`) are the only ones that are required to be defined for a
+backend to fit into the LLVM system, but the others must be defined if the
+reusable code generator components are going to be used.
+
+This design has two important implications.  The first is that LLVM can support
+completely non-traditional code generation targets.  For example, the C backend
+does not require register allocation, instruction selection, or any of the other
+standard components provided by the system.  As such, it only implements these
+two interfaces, and does its own thing. Note that C backend was removed from the
+trunk since LLVM 3.1 release. Another example of a code generator like this is a
+(purely hypothetical) backend that converts LLVM to the GCC RTL form and uses
+GCC to emit machine code for a target.
+
+This design also implies that it is possible to design and implement radically
+different code generators in the LLVM system that do not make use of any of the
+built-in components.  Doing so is not recommended at all, but could be required
+for radically different targets that do not fit into the LLVM machine
+description model: FPGAs for example.
+
+.. _high-level design of the code generator:
+
+The high-level design of the code generator
+-------------------------------------------
+
+The LLVM target-independent code generator is designed to support efficient and
+quality code generation for standard register-based microprocessors.  Code
+generation in this model is divided into the following stages:
+
+1. `Instruction Selection`_ --- This phase determines an efficient way to
+   express the input LLVM code in the target instruction set.  This stage
+   produces the initial code for the program in the target instruction set, then
+   makes use of virtual registers in SSA form and physical registers that
+   represent any required register assignments due to target constraints or
+   calling conventions.  This step turns the LLVM code into a DAG of target
+   instructions.
+
+2. `Scheduling and Formation`_ --- This phase takes the DAG of target
+   instructions produced by the instruction selection phase, determines an
+   ordering of the instructions, then emits the instructions as :raw-html:`<tt>`
+   `MachineInstr`_\s :raw-html:`</tt>` with that ordering.  Note that we
+   describe this in the `instruction selection section`_ because it operates on
+   a `SelectionDAG`_.
+
+3. `SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations`_ --- This optional stage consists of a
+   series of machine-code optimizations that operate on the SSA-form produced by
+   the instruction selector.  Optimizations like modulo-scheduling or peephole
+   optimization work here.
+
+4. `Register Allocation`_ --- The target code is transformed from an infinite
+   virtual register file in SSA form to the concrete register file used by the
+   target.  This phase introduces spill code and eliminates all virtual register
+   references from the program.
+
+5. `Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion`_ --- Once the machine code has been generated
+   for the function and the amount of stack space required is known (used for
+   LLVM alloca's and spill slots), the prolog and epilog code for the function
+   can be inserted and "abstract stack location references" can be eliminated.
+   This stage is responsible for implementing optimizations like frame-pointer
+   elimination and stack packing.
+
+6. `Late Machine Code Optimizations`_ --- Optimizations that operate on "final"
+   machine code can go here, such as spill code scheduling and peephole
+   optimizations.
+
+7. `Code Emission`_ --- The final stage actually puts out the code for the
+   current function, either in the target assembler format or in machine
+   code.
+
+The code generator is based on the assumption that the instruction selector will
+use an optimal pattern matching selector to create high-quality sequences of
+native instructions.  Alternative code generator designs based on pattern
+expansion and aggressive iterative peephole optimization are much slower.  This
+design permits efficient compilation (important for JIT environments) and
+aggressive optimization (used when generating code offline) by allowing
+components of varying levels of sophistication to be used for any step of
+compilation.
+
+In addition to these stages, target implementations can insert arbitrary
+target-specific passes into the flow.  For example, the X86 target uses a
+special pass to handle the 80x87 floating point stack architecture.  Other
+targets with unusual requirements can be supported with custom passes as needed.
+
+Using TableGen for target description
+-------------------------------------
+
+The target description classes require a detailed description of the target
+architecture.  These target descriptions often have a large amount of common
+information (e.g., an ``add`` instruction is almost identical to a ``sub``
+instruction).  In order to allow the maximum amount of commonality to be
+factored out, the LLVM code generator uses the
+`TableGen <TableGenFundamentals.html>`_ tool to describe big chunks of the
+target machine, which allows the use of domain-specific and target-specific
+abstractions to reduce the amount of repetition.
+
+As LLVM continues to be developed and refined, we plan to move more and more of
+the target description to the ``.td`` form.  Doing so gives us a number of
+advantages.  The most important is that it makes it easier to port LLVM because
+it reduces the amount of C++ code that has to be written, and the surface area
+of the code generator that needs to be understood before someone can get
+something working.  Second, it makes it easier to change things. In particular,
+if tables and other things are all emitted by ``tblgen``, we only need a change
+in one place (``tblgen``) to update all of the targets to a new interface.
+
+.. _Abstract target description:
+.. _target description:
+
+Target description classes
+==========================
+
+The LLVM target description classes (located in the ``include/llvm/Target``
+directory) provide an abstract description of the target machine independent of
+any particular client.  These classes are designed to capture the *abstract*
+properties of the target (such as the instructions and registers it has), and do
+not incorporate any particular pieces of code generation algorithms.
+
+All of the target description classes (except the :raw-html:`<tt>` `TargetData`_
+:raw-html:`</tt>` class) are designed to be subclassed by the concrete target
+implementation, and have virtual methods implemented.  To get to these
+implementations, the :raw-html:`<tt>` `TargetMachine`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` class
+provides accessors that should be implemented by the target.
+
+.. _TargetMachine:
+
+The ``TargetMachine`` class
+---------------------------
+
+The ``TargetMachine`` class provides virtual methods that are used to access the
+target-specific implementations of the various target description classes via
+the ``get*Info`` methods (``getInstrInfo``, ``getRegisterInfo``,
+``getFrameInfo``, etc.).  This class is designed to be specialized by a concrete
+target implementation (e.g., ``X86TargetMachine``) which implements the various
+virtual methods.  The only required target description class is the
+:raw-html:`<tt>` `TargetData`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` class, but if the code
+generator components are to be used, the other interfaces should be implemented
+as well.
+
+.. _TargetData:
+
+The ``TargetData`` class
+------------------------
+
+The ``TargetData`` class is the only required target description class, and it
+is the only class that is not extensible (you cannot derived a new class from
+it).  ``TargetData`` specifies information about how the target lays out memory
+for structures, the alignment requirements for various data types, the size of
+pointers in the target, and whether the target is little-endian or
+big-endian.
+
+.. _targetlowering:
+
+The ``TargetLowering`` class
+----------------------------
+
+The ``TargetLowering`` class is used by SelectionDAG based instruction selectors
+primarily to describe how LLVM code should be lowered to SelectionDAG
+operations.  Among other things, this class indicates:
+
+* an initial register class to use for various ``ValueType``\s,
+
+* which operations are natively supported by the target machine,
+
+* the return type of ``setcc`` operations,
+
+* the type to use for shift amounts, and
+
+* various high-level characteristics, like whether it is profitable to turn
+  division by a constant into a multiplication sequence
+
+The ``TargetRegisterInfo`` class
+--------------------------------
+
+The ``TargetRegisterInfo`` class is used to describe the register file of the
+target and any interactions between the registers.
+
+Registers in the code generator are represented in the code generator by
+unsigned integers.  Physical registers (those that actually exist in the target
+description) are unique small numbers, and virtual registers are generally
+large.  Note that register ``#0`` is reserved as a flag value.
+
+Each register in the processor description has an associated
+``TargetRegisterDesc`` entry, which provides a textual name for the register
+(used for assembly output and debugging dumps) and a set of aliases (used to
+indicate whether one register overlaps with another).
+
+In addition to the per-register description, the ``TargetRegisterInfo`` class
+exposes a set of processor specific register classes (instances of the
+``TargetRegisterClass`` class).  Each register class contains sets of registers
+that have the same properties (for example, they are all 32-bit integer
+registers).  Each SSA virtual register created by the instruction selector has
+an associated register class.  When the register allocator runs, it replaces
+virtual registers with a physical register in the set.
+
+The target-specific implementations of these classes is auto-generated from a
+`TableGen <TableGenFundamentals.html>`_ description of the register file.
+
+.. _TargetInstrInfo:
+
+The ``TargetInstrInfo`` class
+-----------------------------
+
+The ``TargetInstrInfo`` class is used to describe the machine instructions
+supported by the target. It is essentially an array of ``TargetInstrDescriptor``
+objects, each of which describes one instruction the target
+supports. Descriptors define things like the mnemonic for the opcode, the number
+of operands, the list of implicit register uses and defs, whether the
+instruction has certain target-independent properties (accesses memory, is
+commutable, etc), and holds any target-specific flags.
+
+The ``TargetFrameInfo`` class
+-----------------------------
+
+The ``TargetFrameInfo`` class is used to provide information about the stack
+frame layout of the target. It holds the direction of stack growth, the known
+stack alignment on entry to each function, and the offset to the local area.
+The offset to the local area is the offset from the stack pointer on function
+entry to the first location where function data (local variables, spill
+locations) can be stored.
+
+The ``TargetSubtarget`` class
+-----------------------------
+
+The ``TargetSubtarget`` class is used to provide information about the specific
+chip set being targeted.  A sub-target informs code generation of which
+instructions are supported, instruction latencies and instruction execution
+itinerary; i.e., which processing units are used, in what order, and for how
+long.
+
+The ``TargetJITInfo`` class
+---------------------------
+
+The ``TargetJITInfo`` class exposes an abstract interface used by the
+Just-In-Time code generator to perform target-specific activities, such as
+emitting stubs.  If a ``TargetMachine`` supports JIT code generation, it should
+provide one of these objects through the ``getJITInfo`` method.
+
+.. _code being generated:
+.. _machine code representation:
+
+Machine code description classes
+================================
+
+At the high-level, LLVM code is translated to a machine specific representation
+formed out of :raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineFunction`_ :raw-html:`</tt>`,
+:raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineBasicBlock`_ :raw-html:`</tt>`, and :raw-html:`<tt>`
+`MachineInstr`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` instances (defined in
+``include/llvm/CodeGen``).  This representation is completely target agnostic,
+representing instructions in their most abstract form: an opcode and a series of
+operands.  This representation is designed to support both an SSA representation
+for machine code, as well as a register allocated, non-SSA form.
+
+.. _MachineInstr:
+
+The ``MachineInstr`` class
+--------------------------
+
+Target machine instructions are represented as instances of the ``MachineInstr``
+class.  This class is an extremely abstract way of representing machine
+instructions.  In particular, it only keeps track of an opcode number and a set
+of operands.
+
+The opcode number is a simple unsigned integer that only has meaning to a
+specific backend.  All of the instructions for a target should be defined in the
+``*InstrInfo.td`` file for the target. The opcode enum values are auto-generated
+from this description.  The ``MachineInstr`` class does not have any information
+about how to interpret the instruction (i.e., what the semantics of the
+instruction are); for that you must refer to the :raw-html:`<tt>`
+`TargetInstrInfo`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` class.
+
+The operands of a machine instruction can be of several different types: a
+register reference, a constant integer, a basic block reference, etc.  In
+addition, a machine operand should be marked as a def or a use of the value
+(though only registers are allowed to be defs).
+
+By convention, the LLVM code generator orders instruction operands so that all
+register definitions come before the register uses, even on architectures that
+are normally printed in other orders.  For example, the SPARC add instruction:
+"``add %i1, %i2, %i3``" adds the "%i1", and "%i2" registers and stores the
+result into the "%i3" register.  In the LLVM code generator, the operands should
+be stored as "``%i3, %i1, %i2``": with the destination first.
+
+Keeping destination (definition) operands at the beginning of the operand list
+has several advantages.  In particular, the debugging printer will print the
+instruction like this:
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  %r3 = add %i1, %i2
+
+Also if the first operand is a def, it is easier to `create instructions`_ whose
+only def is the first operand.
+
+.. _create instructions:
+
+Using the ``MachineInstrBuilder.h`` functions
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Machine instructions are created by using the ``BuildMI`` functions, located in
+the ``include/llvm/CodeGen/MachineInstrBuilder.h`` file.  The ``BuildMI``
+functions make it easy to build arbitrary machine instructions.  Usage of the
+``BuildMI`` functions look like this:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+  // Create a 'DestReg = mov 42' (rendered in X86 assembly as 'mov DestReg, 42')
+  // instruction.  The '1' specifies how many operands will be added.
+  MachineInstr *MI = BuildMI(X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
+
+  // Create the same instr, but insert it at the end of a basic block.
+  MachineBasicBlock &amp;MBB = ...
+  BuildMI(MBB, X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
+
+  // Create the same instr, but insert it before a specified iterator point.
+  MachineBasicBlock::iterator MBBI = ...
+  BuildMI(MBB, MBBI, X86::MOV32ri, 1, DestReg).addImm(42);
+
+  // Create a 'cmp Reg, 0' instruction, no destination reg.
+  MI = BuildMI(X86::CMP32ri, 2).addReg(Reg).addImm(0);
+
+  // Create an 'sahf' instruction which takes no operands and stores nothing.
+  MI = BuildMI(X86::SAHF, 0);
+
+  // Create a self looping branch instruction.
+  BuildMI(MBB, X86::JNE, 1).addMBB(&amp;MBB);
+
+The key thing to remember with the ``BuildMI`` functions is that you have to
+specify the number of operands that the machine instruction will take.  This
+allows for efficient memory allocation.  You also need to specify if operands
+default to be uses of values, not definitions.  If you need to add a definition
+operand (other than the optional destination register), you must explicitly mark
+it as such:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+  MI.addReg(Reg, RegState::Define);
+
+Fixed (preassigned) registers
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+One important issue that the code generator needs to be aware of is the presence
+of fixed registers.  In particular, there are often places in the instruction
+stream where the register allocator *must* arrange for a particular value to be
+in a particular register.  This can occur due to limitations of the instruction
+set (e.g., the X86 can only do a 32-bit divide with the ``EAX``/``EDX``
+registers), or external factors like calling conventions.  In any case, the
+instruction selector should emit code that copies a virtual register into or out
+of a physical register when needed.
+
+For example, consider this simple LLVM example:
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  define i32 @test(i32 %X, i32 %Y) {
+    %Z = udiv i32 %X, %Y
+    ret i32 %Z
+  }
+
+The X86 instruction selector produces this machine code for the ``div`` and
+``ret`` (use "``llc X.bc -march=x86 -print-machineinstrs``" to get this):
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  ;; Start of div
+  %EAX = mov %reg1024           ;; Copy X (in reg1024) into EAX
+  %reg1027 = sar %reg1024, 31
+  %EDX = mov %reg1027           ;; Sign extend X into EDX
+  idiv %reg1025                 ;; Divide by Y (in reg1025)
+  %reg1026 = mov %EAX           ;; Read the result (Z) out of EAX
+
+  ;; Start of ret
+  %EAX = mov %reg1026           ;; 32-bit return value goes in EAX
+  ret
+
+By the end of code generation, the register allocator has coalesced the
+registers and deleted the resultant identity moves producing the following
+code:
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  ;; X is in EAX, Y is in ECX
+  mov %EAX, %EDX
+  sar %EDX, 31
+  idiv %ECX
+  ret 
+
+This approach is extremely general (if it can handle the X86 architecture, it
+can handle anything!) and allows all of the target specific knowledge about the
+instruction stream to be isolated in the instruction selector.  Note that
+physical registers should have a short lifetime for good code generation, and
+all physical registers are assumed dead on entry to and exit from basic blocks
+(before register allocation).  Thus, if you need a value to be live across basic
+block boundaries, it *must* live in a virtual register.
+
+Call-clobbered registers
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Some machine instructions, like calls, clobber a large number of physical
+registers.  Rather than adding ``<def,dead>`` operands for all of them, it is
+possible to use an ``MO_RegisterMask`` operand instead.  The register mask
+operand holds a bit mask of preserved registers, and everything else is
+considered to be clobbered by the instruction.
+
+Machine code in SSA form
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+``MachineInstr``'s are initially selected in SSA-form, and are maintained in
+SSA-form until register allocation happens.  For the most part, this is
+trivially simple since LLVM is already in SSA form; LLVM PHI nodes become
+machine code PHI nodes, and virtual registers are only allowed to have a single
+definition.
+
+After register allocation, machine code is no longer in SSA-form because there
+are no virtual registers left in the code.
+
+.. _MachineBasicBlock:
+
+The ``MachineBasicBlock`` class
+-------------------------------
+
+The ``MachineBasicBlock`` class contains a list of machine instructions
+(:raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineInstr`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` instances).  It roughly
+corresponds to the LLVM code input to the instruction selector, but there can be
+a one-to-many mapping (i.e. one LLVM basic block can map to multiple machine
+basic blocks). The ``MachineBasicBlock`` class has a "``getBasicBlock``" method,
+which returns the LLVM basic block that it comes from.
+
+.. _MachineFunction:
+
+The ``MachineFunction`` class
+-----------------------------
+
+The ``MachineFunction`` class contains a list of machine basic blocks
+(:raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineBasicBlock`_ :raw-html:`</tt>` instances).  It
+corresponds one-to-one with the LLVM function input to the instruction selector.
+In addition to a list of basic blocks, the ``MachineFunction`` contains a a
+``MachineConstantPool``, a ``MachineFrameInfo``, a ``MachineFunctionInfo``, and
+a ``MachineRegisterInfo``.  See ``include/llvm/CodeGen/MachineFunction.h`` for
+more information.
+
+``MachineInstr Bundles``
+------------------------
+
+LLVM code generator can model sequences of instructions as MachineInstr
+bundles. A MI bundle can model a VLIW group / pack which contains an arbitrary
+number of parallel instructions. It can also be used to model a sequential list
+of instructions (potentially with data dependencies) that cannot be legally
+separated (e.g. ARM Thumb2 IT blocks).
+
+Conceptually a MI bundle is a MI with a number of other MIs nested within:
+
+::
+
+  --------------
+  |   Bundle   | ---------
+  --------------          \
+         |           ----------------
+         |           |      MI      |
+         |           ----------------
+         |                   |
+         |           ----------------
+         |           |      MI      |
+         |           ----------------
+         |                   |
+         |           ----------------
+         |           |      MI      |
+         |           ----------------
+         |
+  --------------
+  |   Bundle   | --------
+  --------------         \
+         |           ----------------
+         |           |      MI      |
+         |           ----------------
+         |                   |
+         |           ----------------
+         |           |      MI      |
+         |           ----------------
+         |                   |
+         |                  ...
+         |
+  --------------
+  |   Bundle   | --------
+  --------------         \
+         |
+        ...
+
+MI bundle support does not change the physical representations of
+MachineBasicBlock and MachineInstr. All the MIs (including top level and nested
+ones) are stored as sequential list of MIs. The "bundled" MIs are marked with
+the 'InsideBundle' flag. A top level MI with the special BUNDLE opcode is used
+to represent the start of a bundle. It's legal to mix BUNDLE MIs with indiviual
+MIs that are not inside bundles nor represent bundles.
+
+MachineInstr passes should operate on a MI bundle as a single unit. Member
+methods have been taught to correctly handle bundles and MIs inside bundles.
+The MachineBasicBlock iterator has been modified to skip over bundled MIs to
+enforce the bundle-as-a-single-unit concept. An alternative iterator
+instr_iterator has been added to MachineBasicBlock to allow passes to iterate
+over all of the MIs in a MachineBasicBlock, including those which are nested
+inside bundles. The top level BUNDLE instruction must have the correct set of
+register MachineOperand's that represent the cumulative inputs and outputs of
+the bundled MIs.
+
+Packing / bundling of MachineInstr's should be done as part of the register
+allocation super-pass. More specifically, the pass which determines what MIs
+should be bundled together must be done after code generator exits SSA form
+(i.e. after two-address pass, PHI elimination, and copy coalescing).  Bundles
+should only be finalized (i.e. adding BUNDLE MIs and input and output register
+MachineOperands) after virtual registers have been rewritten into physical
+registers. This requirement eliminates the need to add virtual register operands
+to BUNDLE instructions which would effectively double the virtual register def
+and use lists.
+
+.. _MC Layer:
+
+The "MC" Layer
+==============
+
+The MC Layer is used to represent and process code at the raw machine code
+level, devoid of "high level" information like "constant pools", "jump tables",
+"global variables" or anything like that.  At this level, LLVM handles things
+like label names, machine instructions, and sections in the object file.  The
+code in this layer is used for a number of important purposes: the tail end of
+the code generator uses it to write a .s or .o file, and it is also used by the
+llvm-mc tool to implement standalone machine code assemblers and disassemblers.
+
+This section describes some of the important classes.  There are also a number
+of important subsystems that interact at this layer, they are described later in
+this manual.
+
+.. _MCStreamer:
+
+The ``MCStreamer`` API
+----------------------
+
+MCStreamer is best thought of as an assembler API.  It is an abstract API which
+is *implemented* in different ways (e.g. to output a .s file, output an ELF .o
+file, etc) but whose API correspond directly to what you see in a .s file.
+MCStreamer has one method per directive, such as EmitLabel, EmitSymbolAttribute,
+SwitchSection, EmitValue (for .byte, .word), etc, which directly correspond to
+assembly level directives.  It also has an EmitInstruction method, which is used
+to output an MCInst to the streamer.
+
+This API is most important for two clients: the llvm-mc stand-alone assembler is
+effectively a parser that parses a line, then invokes a method on MCStreamer. In
+the code generator, the `Code Emission`_ phase of the code generator lowers
+higher level LLVM IR and Machine* constructs down to the MC layer, emitting
+directives through MCStreamer.
+
+On the implementation side of MCStreamer, there are two major implementations:
+one for writing out a .s file (MCAsmStreamer), and one for writing out a .o
+file (MCObjectStreamer).  MCAsmStreamer is a straight-forward implementation
+that prints out a directive for each method (e.g. ``EmitValue -> .byte``), but
+MCObjectStreamer implements a full assembler.
+
+The ``MCContext`` class
+-----------------------
+
+The MCContext class is the owner of a variety of uniqued data structures at the
+MC layer, including symbols, sections, etc.  As such, this is the class that you
+interact with to create symbols and sections.  This class can not be subclassed.
+
+The ``MCSymbol`` class
+----------------------
+
+The MCSymbol class represents a symbol (aka label) in the assembly file.  There
+are two interesting kinds of symbols: assembler temporary symbols, and normal
+symbols.  Assembler temporary symbols are used and processed by the assembler
+but are discarded when the object file is produced.  The distinction is usually
+represented by adding a prefix to the label, for example "L" labels are
+assembler temporary labels in MachO.
+
+MCSymbols are created by MCContext and uniqued there.  This means that MCSymbols
+can be compared for pointer equivalence to find out if they are the same symbol.
+Note that pointer inequality does not guarantee the labels will end up at
+different addresses though.  It's perfectly legal to output something like this
+to the .s file:
+
+::
+
+  foo:
+  bar:
+    .byte 4
+
+In this case, both the foo and bar symbols will have the same address.
+
+The ``MCSection`` class
+-----------------------
+
+The ``MCSection`` class represents an object-file specific section. It is
+subclassed by object file specific implementations (e.g. ``MCSectionMachO``,
+``MCSectionCOFF``, ``MCSectionELF``) and these are created and uniqued by
+MCContext.  The MCStreamer has a notion of the current section, which can be
+changed with the SwitchToSection method (which corresponds to a ".section"
+directive in a .s file).
+
+.. _MCInst:
+
+The ``MCInst`` class
+--------------------
+
+The ``MCInst`` class is a target-independent representation of an instruction.
+It is a simple class (much more so than `MachineInstr`_) that holds a
+target-specific opcode and a vector of MCOperands.  MCOperand, in turn, is a
+simple discriminated union of three cases: 1) a simple immediate, 2) a target
+register ID, 3) a symbolic expression (e.g. "``Lfoo-Lbar+42``") as an MCExpr.
+
+MCInst is the common currency used to represent machine instructions at the MC
+layer.  It is the type used by the instruction encoder, the instruction printer,
+and the type generated by the assembly parser and disassembler.
+
+.. _Target-independent algorithms:
+.. _code generation algorithm:
+
+Target-independent code generation algorithms
+=============================================
+
+This section documents the phases described in the `high-level design of the
+code generator`_.  It explains how they work and some of the rationale behind
+their design.
+
+.. _Instruction Selection:
+.. _instruction selection section:
+
+Instruction Selection
+---------------------
+
+Instruction Selection is the process of translating LLVM code presented to the
+code generator into target-specific machine instructions.  There are several
+well-known ways to do this in the literature.  LLVM uses a SelectionDAG based
+instruction selector.
+
+Portions of the DAG instruction selector are generated from the target
+description (``*.td``) files.  Our goal is for the entire instruction selector
+to be generated from these ``.td`` files, though currently there are still
+things that require custom C++ code.
+
+.. _SelectionDAG:
+
+Introduction to SelectionDAGs
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The SelectionDAG provides an abstraction for code representation in a way that
+is amenable to instruction selection using automatic techniques
+(e.g. dynamic-programming based optimal pattern matching selectors). It is also
+well-suited to other phases of code generation; in particular, instruction
+scheduling (SelectionDAG's are very close to scheduling DAGs post-selection).
+Additionally, the SelectionDAG provides a host representation where a large
+variety of very-low-level (but target-independent) `optimizations`_ may be
+performed; ones which require extensive information about the instructions
+efficiently supported by the target.
+
+The SelectionDAG is a Directed-Acyclic-Graph whose nodes are instances of the
+``SDNode`` class.  The primary payload of the ``SDNode`` is its operation code
+(Opcode) that indicates what operation the node performs and the operands to the
+operation.  The various operation node types are described at the top of the
+``include/llvm/CodeGen/SelectionDAGNodes.h`` file.
+
+Although most operations define a single value, each node in the graph may
+define multiple values.  For example, a combined div/rem operation will define
+both the dividend and the remainder. Many other situations require multiple
+values as well.  Each node also has some number of operands, which are edges to
+the node defining the used value.  Because nodes may define multiple values,
+edges are represented by instances of the ``SDValue`` class, which is a
+``<SDNode, unsigned>`` pair, indicating the node and result value being used,
+respectively.  Each value produced by an ``SDNode`` has an associated ``MVT``
+(Machine Value Type) indicating what the type of the value is.
+
+SelectionDAGs contain two different kinds of values: those that represent data
+flow and those that represent control flow dependencies.  Data values are simple
+edges with an integer or floating point value type.  Control edges are
+represented as "chain" edges which are of type ``MVT::Other``.  These edges
+provide an ordering between nodes that have side effects (such as loads, stores,
+calls, returns, etc).  All nodes that have side effects should take a token
+chain as input and produce a new one as output.  By convention, token chain
+inputs are always operand #0, and chain results are always the last value
+produced by an operation.
+
+A SelectionDAG has designated "Entry" and "Root" nodes.  The Entry node is
+always a marker node with an Opcode of ``ISD::EntryToken``.  The Root node is
+the final side-effecting node in the token chain. For example, in a single basic
+block function it would be the return node.
+
+One important concept for SelectionDAGs is the notion of a "legal" vs.
+"illegal" DAG.  A legal DAG for a target is one that only uses supported
+operations and supported types.  On a 32-bit PowerPC, for example, a DAG with a
+value of type i1, i8, i16, or i64 would be illegal, as would a DAG that uses a
+SREM or UREM operation.  The `legalize types`_ and `legalize operations`_ phases
+are responsible for turning an illegal DAG into a legal DAG.
+
+SelectionDAG Instruction Selection Process
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+SelectionDAG-based instruction selection consists of the following steps:
+
+#. `Build initial DAG`_ --- This stage performs a simple translation from the
+   input LLVM code to an illegal SelectionDAG.
+
+#. `Optimize SelectionDAG`_ --- This stage performs simple optimizations on the
+   SelectionDAG to simplify it, and recognize meta instructions (like rotates
+   and ``div``/``rem`` pairs) for targets that support these meta operations.
+   This makes the resultant code more efficient and the `select instructions
+   from DAG`_ phase (below) simpler.
+
+#. `Legalize SelectionDAG Types`_ --- This stage transforms SelectionDAG nodes
+   to eliminate any types that are unsupported on the target.
+
+#. `Optimize SelectionDAG`_ --- The SelectionDAG optimizer is run to clean up
+   redundancies exposed by type legalization.
+
+#. `Legalize SelectionDAG Ops`_ --- This stage transforms SelectionDAG nodes to
+   eliminate any operations that are unsupported on the target.
+
+#. `Optimize SelectionDAG`_ --- The SelectionDAG optimizer is run to eliminate
+   inefficiencies introduced by operation legalization.
+
+#. `Select instructions from DAG`_ --- Finally, the target instruction selector
+   matches the DAG operations to target instructions.  This process translates
+   the target-independent input DAG into another DAG of target instructions.
+
+#. `SelectionDAG Scheduling and Formation`_ --- The last phase assigns a linear
+   order to the instructions in the target-instruction DAG and emits them into
+   the MachineFunction being compiled.  This step uses traditional prepass
+   scheduling techniques.
+
+After all of these steps are complete, the SelectionDAG is destroyed and the
+rest of the code generation passes are run.
+
+One great way to visualize what is going on here is to take advantage of a few
+LLC command line options.  The following options pop up a window displaying the
+SelectionDAG at specific times (if you only get errors printed to the console
+while using this, you probably `need to configure your
+system <ProgrammersManual.html#ViewGraph>`_ to add support for it).
+
+* ``-view-dag-combine1-dags`` displays the DAG after being built, before the
+  first optimization pass.
+
+* ``-view-legalize-dags`` displays the DAG before Legalization.
+
+* ``-view-dag-combine2-dags`` displays the DAG before the second optimization
+  pass.
+
+* ``-view-isel-dags`` displays the DAG before the Select phase.
+
+* ``-view-sched-dags`` displays the DAG before Scheduling.
+
+The ``-view-sunit-dags`` displays the Scheduler's dependency graph.  This graph
+is based on the final SelectionDAG, with nodes that must be scheduled together
+bundled into a single scheduling-unit node, and with immediate operands and
+other nodes that aren't relevant for scheduling omitted.
+
+.. _Build initial DAG:
+
+Initial SelectionDAG Construction
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The initial SelectionDAG is na\ :raw-html:`&iuml;`\ vely peephole expanded from
+the LLVM input by the ``SelectionDAGLowering`` class in the
+``lib/CodeGen/SelectionDAG/SelectionDAGISel.cpp`` file.  The intent of this pass
+is to expose as much low-level, target-specific details to the SelectionDAG as
+possible.  This pass is mostly hard-coded (e.g. an LLVM ``add`` turns into an
+``SDNode add`` while a ``getelementptr`` is expanded into the obvious
+arithmetic). This pass requires target-specific hooks to lower calls, returns,
+varargs, etc.  For these features, the :raw-html:`<tt>` `TargetLowering`_
+:raw-html:`</tt>` interface is used.
+
+.. _legalize types:
+.. _Legalize SelectionDAG Types:
+.. _Legalize SelectionDAG Ops:
+
+SelectionDAG LegalizeTypes Phase
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The Legalize phase is in charge of converting a DAG to only use the types that
+are natively supported by the target.
+
+There are two main ways of converting values of unsupported scalar types to
+values of supported types: converting small types to larger types ("promoting"),
+and breaking up large integer types into smaller ones ("expanding").  For
+example, a target might require that all f32 values are promoted to f64 and that
+all i1/i8/i16 values are promoted to i32.  The same target might require that
+all i64 values be expanded into pairs of i32 values.  These changes can insert
+sign and zero extensions as needed to make sure that the final code has the same
+behavior as the input.
+
+There are two main ways of converting values of unsupported vector types to
+value of supported types: splitting vector types, multiple times if necessary,
+until a legal type is found, and extending vector types by adding elements to
+the end to round them out to legal types ("widening").  If a vector gets split
+all the way down to single-element parts with no supported vector type being
+found, the elements are converted to scalars ("scalarizing").
+
+A target implementation tells the legalizer which types are supported (and which
+register class to use for them) by calling the ``addRegisterClass`` method in
+its TargetLowering constructor.
+
+.. _legalize operations:
+.. _Legalizer:
+
+SelectionDAG Legalize Phase
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The Legalize phase is in charge of converting a DAG to only use the operations
+that are natively supported by the target.
+
+Targets often have weird constraints, such as not supporting every operation on
+every supported datatype (e.g. X86 does not support byte conditional moves and
+PowerPC does not support sign-extending loads from a 16-bit memory location).
+Legalize takes care of this by open-coding another sequence of operations to
+emulate the operation ("expansion"), by promoting one type to a larger type that
+supports the operation ("promotion"), or by using a target-specific hook to
+implement the legalization ("custom").
+
+A target implementation tells the legalizer which operations are not supported
+(and which of the above three actions to take) by calling the
+``setOperationAction`` method in its ``TargetLowering`` constructor.
+
+Prior to the existence of the Legalize passes, we required that every target
+`selector`_ supported and handled every operator and type even if they are not
+natively supported.  The introduction of the Legalize phases allows all of the
+canonicalization patterns to be shared across targets, and makes it very easy to
+optimize the canonicalized code because it is still in the form of a DAG.
+
+.. _optimizations:
+.. _Optimize SelectionDAG:
+.. _selector:
+
+SelectionDAG Optimization Phase: the DAG Combiner
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The SelectionDAG optimization phase is run multiple times for code generation,
+immediately after the DAG is built and once after each legalization.  The first
+run of the pass allows the initial code to be cleaned up (e.g. performing
+optimizations that depend on knowing that the operators have restricted type
+inputs).  Subsequent runs of the pass clean up the messy code generated by the
+Legalize passes, which allows Legalize to be very simple (it can focus on making
+code legal instead of focusing on generating *good* and legal code).
+
+One important class of optimizations performed is optimizing inserted sign and
+zero extension instructions.  We currently use ad-hoc techniques, but could move
+to more rigorous techniques in the future.  Here are some good papers on the
+subject:
+
+"`Widening integer arithmetic <http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~nr/pubs/widen-abstract.html>`_" :raw-html:`<br>`
+Kevin Redwine and Norman Ramsey :raw-html:`<br>`
+International Conference on Compiler Construction (CC) 2004
+
+"`Effective sign extension elimination <http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=512529.512552>`_"  :raw-html:`<br>`
+Motohiro Kawahito, Hideaki Komatsu, and Toshio Nakatani :raw-html:`<br>`
+Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 2002 Conference on Programming Language Design
+and Implementation.
+
+.. _Select instructions from DAG:
+
+SelectionDAG Select Phase
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The Select phase is the bulk of the target-specific code for instruction
+selection.  This phase takes a legal SelectionDAG as input, pattern matches the
+instructions supported by the target to this DAG, and produces a new DAG of
+target code.  For example, consider the following LLVM fragment:
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  %t1 = fadd float %W, %X
+  %t2 = fmul float %t1, %Y
+  %t3 = fadd float %t2, %Z
+
+This LLVM code corresponds to a SelectionDAG that looks basically like this:
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  (fadd:f32 (fmul:f32 (fadd:f32 W, X), Y), Z)
+
+If a target supports floating point multiply-and-add (FMA) operations, one of
+the adds can be merged with the multiply.  On the PowerPC, for example, the
+output of the instruction selector might look like this DAG:
+
+::
+
+  (FMADDS (FADDS W, X), Y, Z)
+
+The ``FMADDS`` instruction is a ternary instruction that multiplies its first
+two operands and adds the third (as single-precision floating-point numbers).
+The ``FADDS`` instruction is a simple binary single-precision add instruction.
+To perform this pattern match, the PowerPC backend includes the following
+instruction definitions:
+
+::
+
+  def FMADDS : AForm_1<59, 29,
+                      (ops F4RC:$FRT, F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRC, F4RC:$FRB),
+                      "fmadds $FRT, $FRA, $FRC, $FRB",
+                      [(set F4RC:$FRT, (fadd (fmul F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRC),
+                                             F4RC:$FRB))]>;
+  def FADDS : AForm_2<59, 21,
+                      (ops F4RC:$FRT, F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRB),
+                      "fadds $FRT, $FRA, $FRB",
+                      [(set F4RC:$FRT, (fadd F4RC:$FRA, F4RC:$FRB))]>;
+
+The portion of the instruction definition in bold indicates the pattern used to
+match the instruction.  The DAG operators (like ``fmul``/``fadd``) are defined
+in the ``include/llvm/Target/TargetSelectionDAG.td`` file.  " ``F4RC``" is the
+register class of the input and result values.
+
+The TableGen DAG instruction selector generator reads the instruction patterns
+in the ``.td`` file and automatically builds parts of the pattern matching code
+for your target.  It has the following strengths:
+
+* At compiler-compiler time, it analyzes your instruction patterns and tells you
+  if your patterns make sense or not.
+
+* It can handle arbitrary constraints on operands for the pattern match.  In
+  particular, it is straight-forward to say things like "match any immediate
+  that is a 13-bit sign-extended value".  For examples, see the ``immSExt16``
+  and related ``tblgen`` classes in the PowerPC backend.
+
+* It knows several important identities for the patterns defined.  For example,
+  it knows that addition is commutative, so it allows the ``FMADDS`` pattern
+  above to match "``(fadd X, (fmul Y, Z))``" as well as "``(fadd (fmul X, Y),
+  Z)``", without the target author having to specially handle this case.
+
+* It has a full-featured type-inferencing system.  In particular, you should
+  rarely have to explicitly tell the system what type parts of your patterns
+  are.  In the ``FMADDS`` case above, we didn't have to tell ``tblgen`` that all
+  of the nodes in the pattern are of type 'f32'.  It was able to infer and
+  propagate this knowledge from the fact that ``F4RC`` has type 'f32'.
+
+* Targets can define their own (and rely on built-in) "pattern fragments".
+  Pattern fragments are chunks of reusable patterns that get inlined into your
+  patterns during compiler-compiler time.  For example, the integer "``(not
+  x)``" operation is actually defined as a pattern fragment that expands as
+  "``(xor x, -1)``", since the SelectionDAG does not have a native '``not``'
+  operation.  Targets can define their own short-hand fragments as they see fit.
+  See the definition of '``not``' and '``ineg``' for examples.
+
+* In addition to instructions, targets can specify arbitrary patterns that map
+  to one or more instructions using the 'Pat' class.  For example, the PowerPC
+  has no way to load an arbitrary integer immediate into a register in one
+  instruction. To tell tblgen how to do this, it defines:
+
+  ::
+
+    // Arbitrary immediate support.  Implement in terms of LIS/ORI.
+    def : Pat<(i32 imm:$imm),
+              (ORI (LIS (HI16 imm:$imm)), (LO16 imm:$imm))>;
+
+  If none of the single-instruction patterns for loading an immediate into a
+  register match, this will be used.  This rule says "match an arbitrary i32
+  immediate, turning it into an ``ORI`` ('or a 16-bit immediate') and an ``LIS``
+  ('load 16-bit immediate, where the immediate is shifted to the left 16 bits')
+  instruction".  To make this work, the ``LO16``/``HI16`` node transformations
+  are used to manipulate the input immediate (in this case, take the high or low
+  16-bits of the immediate).
+
+* While the system does automate a lot, it still allows you to write custom C++
+  code to match special cases if there is something that is hard to
+  express.
+
+While it has many strengths, the system currently has some limitations,
+primarily because it is a work in progress and is not yet finished:
+
+* Overall, there is no way to define or match SelectionDAG nodes that define
+  multiple values (e.g. ``SMUL_LOHI``, ``LOAD``, ``CALL``, etc).  This is the
+  biggest reason that you currently still *have to* write custom C++ code
+  for your instruction selector.
+
+* There is no great way to support matching complex addressing modes yet.  In
+  the future, we will extend pattern fragments to allow them to define multiple
+  values (e.g. the four operands of the `X86 addressing mode`_, which are
+  currently matched with custom C++ code).  In addition, we'll extend fragments
+  so that a fragment can match multiple different patterns.
+
+* We don't automatically infer flags like ``isStore``/``isLoad`` yet.
+
+* We don't automatically generate the set of supported registers and operations
+  for the `Legalizer`_ yet.
+
+* We don't have a way of tying in custom legalized nodes yet.
+
+Despite these limitations, the instruction selector generator is still quite
+useful for most of the binary and logical operations in typical instruction
+sets.  If you run into any problems or can't figure out how to do something,
+please let Chris know!
+
+.. _Scheduling and Formation:
+.. _SelectionDAG Scheduling and Formation:
+
+SelectionDAG Scheduling and Formation Phase
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The scheduling phase takes the DAG of target instructions from the selection
+phase and assigns an order.  The scheduler can pick an order depending on
+various constraints of the machines (i.e. order for minimal register pressure or
+try to cover instruction latencies).  Once an order is established, the DAG is
+converted to a list of :raw-html:`<tt>` `MachineInstr`_\s :raw-html:`</tt>` and
+the SelectionDAG is destroyed.
+
+Note that this phase is logically separate from the instruction selection phase,
+but is tied to it closely in the code because it operates on SelectionDAGs.
+
+Future directions for the SelectionDAG
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+#. Optional function-at-a-time selection.
+
+#. Auto-generate entire selector from ``.td`` file.
+
+.. _SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations:
+
+SSA-based Machine Code Optimizations
+------------------------------------
+
+To Be Written
+
+Live Intervals
+--------------
+
+Live Intervals are the ranges (intervals) where a variable is *live*.  They are
+used by some `register allocator`_ passes to determine if two or more virtual
+registers which require the same physical register are live at the same point in
+the program (i.e., they conflict).  When this situation occurs, one virtual
+register must be *spilled*.
+
+Live Variable Analysis
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The first step in determining the live intervals of variables is to calculate
+the set of registers that are immediately dead after the instruction (i.e., the
+instruction calculates the value, but it is never used) and the set of registers
+that are used by the instruction, but are never used after the instruction
+(i.e., they are killed). Live variable information is computed for
+each *virtual* register and *register allocatable* physical register
+in the function.  This is done in a very efficient manner because it uses SSA to
+sparsely compute lifetime information for virtual registers (which are in SSA
+form) and only has to track physical registers within a block.  Before register
+allocation, LLVM can assume that physical registers are only live within a
+single basic block.  This allows it to do a single, local analysis to resolve
+physical register lifetimes within each basic block. If a physical register is
+not register allocatable (e.g., a stack pointer or condition codes), it is not
+tracked.
+
+Physical registers may be live in to or out of a function. Live in values are
+typically arguments in registers. Live out values are typically return values in
+registers. Live in values are marked as such, and are given a dummy "defining"
+instruction during live intervals analysis. If the last basic block of a
+function is a ``return``, then it's marked as using all live out values in the
+function.
+
+``PHI`` nodes need to be handled specially, because the calculation of the live
+variable information from a depth first traversal of the CFG of the function
+won't guarantee that a virtual register used by the ``PHI`` node is defined
+before it's used. When a ``PHI`` node is encountered, only the definition is
+handled, because the uses will be handled in other basic blocks.
+
+For each ``PHI`` node of the current basic block, we simulate an assignment at
+the end of the current basic block and traverse the successor basic blocks. If a
+successor basic block has a ``PHI`` node and one of the ``PHI`` node's operands
+is coming from the current basic block, then the variable is marked as *alive*
+within the current basic block and all of its predecessor basic blocks, until
+the basic block with the defining instruction is encountered.
+
+Live Intervals Analysis
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+We now have the information available to perform the live intervals analysis and
+build the live intervals themselves.  We start off by numbering the basic blocks
+and machine instructions.  We then handle the "live-in" values.  These are in
+physical registers, so the physical register is assumed to be killed by the end
+of the basic block.  Live intervals for virtual registers are computed for some
+ordering of the machine instructions ``[1, N]``.  A live interval is an interval
+``[i, j)``, where ``1 >= i >= j > N``, for which a variable is live.
+
+.. note::
+  More to come...
+
+.. _Register Allocation:
+.. _register allocator:
+
+Register Allocation
+-------------------
+
+The *Register Allocation problem* consists in mapping a program
+:raw-html:`<b><tt>` P\ :sub:`v`\ :raw-html:`</tt></b>`, that can use an unbounded
+number of virtual registers, to a program :raw-html:`<b><tt>` P\ :sub:`p`\
+:raw-html:`</tt></b>` that contains a finite (possibly small) number of physical
+registers. Each target architecture has a different number of physical
+registers. If the number of physical registers is not enough to accommodate all
+the virtual registers, some of them will have to be mapped into memory. These
+virtuals are called *spilled virtuals*.
+
+How registers are represented in LLVM
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+In LLVM, physical registers are denoted by integer numbers that normally range
+from 1 to 1023. To see how this numbering is defined for a particular
+architecture, you can read the ``GenRegisterNames.inc`` file for that
+architecture. For instance, by inspecting
+``lib/Target/X86/X86GenRegisterInfo.inc`` we see that the 32-bit register
+``EAX`` is denoted by 43, and the MMX register ``MM0`` is mapped to 65.
+
+Some architectures contain registers that share the same physical location. A
+notable example is the X86 platform. For instance, in the X86 architecture, the
+registers ``EAX``, ``AX`` and ``AL`` share the first eight bits. These physical
+registers are marked as *aliased* in LLVM. Given a particular architecture, you
+can check which registers are aliased by inspecting its ``RegisterInfo.td``
+file. Moreover, the class ``MCRegAliasIterator`` enumerates all the physical
+registers aliased to a register.
+
+Physical registers, in LLVM, are grouped in *Register Classes*.  Elements in the
+same register class are functionally equivalent, and can be interchangeably
+used. Each virtual register can only be mapped to physical registers of a
+particular class. For instance, in the X86 architecture, some virtuals can only
+be allocated to 8 bit registers.  A register class is described by
+``TargetRegisterClass`` objects.  To discover if a virtual register is
+compatible with a given physical, this code can be used:</p>
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+  bool RegMapping_Fer::compatible_class(MachineFunction &mf,
+                                        unsigned v_reg,
+                                        unsigned p_reg) {
+    assert(TargetRegisterInfo::isPhysicalRegister(p_reg) &&
+           "Target register must be physical");
+    const TargetRegisterClass *trc = mf.getRegInfo().getRegClass(v_reg);
+    return trc->contains(p_reg);
+  }
+
+Sometimes, mostly for debugging purposes, it is useful to change the number of
+physical registers available in the target architecture. This must be done
+statically, inside the ``TargetRegsterInfo.td`` file. Just ``grep`` for
+``RegisterClass``, the last parameter of which is a list of registers. Just
+commenting some out is one simple way to avoid them being used. A more polite
+way is to explicitly exclude some registers from the *allocation order*. See the
+definition of the ``GR8`` register class in
+``lib/Target/X86/X86RegisterInfo.td`` for an example of this.
+
+Virtual registers are also denoted by integer numbers. Contrary to physical
+registers, different virtual registers never share the same number. Whereas
+physical registers are statically defined in a ``TargetRegisterInfo.td`` file
+and cannot be created by the application developer, that is not the case with
+virtual registers. In order to create new virtual registers, use the method
+``MachineRegisterInfo::createVirtualRegister()``. This method will return a new
+virtual register. Use an ``IndexedMap<Foo, VirtReg2IndexFunctor>`` to hold
+information per virtual register. If you need to enumerate all virtual
+registers, use the function ``TargetRegisterInfo::index2VirtReg()`` to find the
+virtual register numbers:
+
+.. code-block:: c++
+
+    for (unsigned i = 0, e = MRI->getNumVirtRegs(); i != e; ++i) {
+      unsigned VirtReg = TargetRegisterInfo::index2VirtReg(i);
+      stuff(VirtReg);
+    }
+
+Before register allocation, the operands of an instruction are mostly virtual
+registers, although physical registers may also be used. In order to check if a
+given machine operand is a register, use the boolean function
+``MachineOperand::isRegister()``. To obtain the integer code of a register, use
+``MachineOperand::getReg()``. An instruction may define or use a register. For
+instance, ``ADD reg:1026 := reg:1025 reg:1024`` defines the registers 1024, and
+uses registers 1025 and 1026. Given a register operand, the method
+``MachineOperand::isUse()`` informs if that register is being used by the
+instruction. The method ``MachineOperand::isDef()`` informs if that registers is
+being defined.
+
+We will call physical registers present in the LLVM bitcode before register
+allocation *pre-colored registers*. Pre-colored registers are used in many
+different situations, for instance, to pass parameters of functions calls, and
+to store results of particular instructions. There are two types of pre-colored
+registers: the ones *implicitly* defined, and those *explicitly*
+defined. Explicitly defined registers are normal operands, and can be accessed
+with ``MachineInstr::getOperand(int)::getReg()``.  In order to check which
+registers are implicitly defined by an instruction, use the
+``TargetInstrInfo::get(opcode)::ImplicitDefs``, where ``opcode`` is the opcode
+of the target instruction. One important difference between explicit and
+implicit physical registers is that the latter are defined statically for each
+instruction, whereas the former may vary depending on the program being
+compiled. For example, an instruction that represents a function call will
+always implicitly define or use the same set of physical registers. To read the
+registers implicitly used by an instruction, use
+``TargetInstrInfo::get(opcode)::ImplicitUses``. Pre-colored registers impose
+constraints on any register allocation algorithm. The register allocator must
+make sure that none of them are overwritten by the values of virtual registers
+while still alive.
+
+Mapping virtual registers to physical registers
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+There are two ways to map virtual registers to physical registers (or to memory
+slots). The first way, that we will call *direct mapping*, is based on the use
+of methods of the classes ``TargetRegisterInfo``, and ``MachineOperand``. The
+second way, that we will call *indirect mapping*, relies on the ``VirtRegMap``
+class in order to insert loads and stores sending and getting values to and from
+memory.
+
+The direct mapping provides more flexibility to the developer of the register
+allocator; however, it is more error prone, and demands more implementation
+work.  Basically, the programmer will have to specify where load and store
+instructions should be inserted in the target function being compiled in order
+to get and store values in memory. To assign a physical register to a virtual
+register present in a given operand, use ``MachineOperand::setReg(p_reg)``. To
+insert a store instruction, use ``TargetInstrInfo::storeRegToStackSlot(...)``,
+and to insert a load instruction, use ``TargetInstrInfo::loadRegFromStackSlot``.
+
+The indirect mapping shields the application developer from the complexities of
+inserting load and store instructions. In order to map a virtual register to a
+physical one, use ``VirtRegMap::assignVirt2Phys(vreg, preg)``.  In order to map
+a certain virtual register to memory, use
+``VirtRegMap::assignVirt2StackSlot(vreg)``. This method will return the stack
+slot where ``vreg``'s value will be located.  If it is necessary to map another
+virtual register to the same stack slot, use
+``VirtRegMap::assignVirt2StackSlot(vreg, stack_location)``. One important point
+to consider when using the indirect mapping, is that even if a virtual register
+is mapped to memory, it still needs to be mapped to a physical register. This
+physical register is the location where the virtual register is supposed to be
+found before being stored or after being reloaded.
+
+If the indirect strategy is used, after all the virtual registers have been
+mapped to physical registers or stack slots, it is necessary to use a spiller
+object to place load and store instructions in the code. Every virtual that has
+been mapped to a stack slot will be stored to memory after been defined and will
+be loaded before being used. The implementation of the spiller tries to recycle
+load/store instructions, avoiding unnecessary instructions. For an example of
+how to invoke the spiller, see ``RegAllocLinearScan::runOnMachineFunction`` in
+``lib/CodeGen/RegAllocLinearScan.cpp``.
+
+Handling two address instructions
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+With very rare exceptions (e.g., function calls), the LLVM machine code
+instructions are three address instructions. That is, each instruction is
+expected to define at most one register, and to use at most two registers.
+However, some architectures use two address instructions. In this case, the
+defined register is also one of the used register. For instance, an instruction
+such as ``ADD %EAX, %EBX``, in X86 is actually equivalent to ``%EAX = %EAX +
+%EBX``.
+
+In order to produce correct code, LLVM must convert three address instructions
+that represent two address instructions into true two address instructions. LLVM
+provides the pass ``TwoAddressInstructionPass`` for this specific purpose. It
+must be run before register allocation takes place. After its execution, the
+resulting code may no longer be in SSA form. This happens, for instance, in
+situations where an instruction such as ``%a = ADD %b %c`` is converted to two
+instructions such as:
+
+::
+
+  %a = MOVE %b
+  %a = ADD %a %c
+
+Notice that, internally, the second instruction is represented as ``ADD
+%a[def/use] %c``. I.e., the register operand ``%a`` is both used and defined by
+the instruction.
+
+The SSA deconstruction phase
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+An important transformation that happens during register allocation is called
+the *SSA Deconstruction Phase*. The SSA form simplifies many analyses that are
+performed on the control flow graph of programs. However, traditional
+instruction sets do not implement PHI instructions. Thus, in order to generate
+executable code, compilers must replace PHI instructions with other instructions
+that preserve their semantics.
+
+There are many ways in which PHI instructions can safely be removed from the
+target code. The most traditional PHI deconstruction algorithm replaces PHI
+instructions with copy instructions. That is the strategy adopted by LLVM. The
+SSA deconstruction algorithm is implemented in
+``lib/CodeGen/PHIElimination.cpp``. In order to invoke this pass, the identifier
+``PHIEliminationID`` must be marked as required in the code of the register
+allocator.
+
+Instruction folding
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+*Instruction folding* is an optimization performed during register allocation
+that removes unnecessary copy instructions. For instance, a sequence of
+instructions such as:
+
+::
+
+  %EBX = LOAD %mem_address
+  %EAX = COPY %EBX
+
+can be safely substituted by the single instruction:
+
+::
+
+  %EAX = LOAD %mem_address
+
+Instructions can be folded with the
+``TargetRegisterInfo::foldMemoryOperand(...)`` method. Care must be taken when
+folding instructions; a folded instruction can be quite different from the
+original instruction. See ``LiveIntervals::addIntervalsForSpills`` in
+``lib/CodeGen/LiveIntervalAnalysis.cpp`` for an example of its use.
+
+Built in register allocators
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The LLVM infrastructure provides the application developer with three different
+register allocators:
+
+* *Fast* --- This register allocator is the default for debug builds. It
+  allocates registers on a basic block level, attempting to keep values in
+  registers and reusing registers as appropriate.
+
+* *Basic* --- This is an incremental approach to register allocation. Live
+  ranges are assigned to registers one at a time in an order that is driven by
+  heuristics. Since code can be rewritten on-the-fly during allocation, this
+  framework allows interesting allocators to be developed as extensions. It is
+  not itself a production register allocator but is a potentially useful
+  stand-alone mode for triaging bugs and as a performance baseline.
+
+* *Greedy* --- *The default allocator*. This is a highly tuned implementation of
+  the *Basic* allocator that incorporates global live range splitting. This
+  allocator works hard to minimize the cost of spill code.
+
+* *PBQP* --- A Partitioned Boolean Quadratic Programming (PBQP) based register
+  allocator. This allocator works by constructing a PBQP problem representing
+  the register allocation problem under consideration, solving this using a PBQP
+  solver, and mapping the solution back to a register assignment.
+
+The type of register allocator used in ``llc`` can be chosen with the command
+line option ``-regalloc=...``:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+  $ llc -regalloc=linearscan file.bc -o ln.s
+  $ llc -regalloc=fast file.bc -o fa.s
+  $ llc -regalloc=pbqp file.bc -o pbqp.s
+
+.. _Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion:
+
+Prolog/Epilog Code Insertion
+----------------------------
+
+Compact Unwind
+
+Throwing an exception requires *unwinding* out of a function. The information on
+how to unwind a given function is traditionally expressed in DWARF unwind
+(a.k.a. frame) info. But that format was originally developed for debuggers to
+backtrace, and each Frame Description Entry (FDE) requires ~20-30 bytes per
+function. There is also the cost of mapping from an address in a function to the
+corresponding FDE at runtime. An alternative unwind encoding is called *compact
+unwind* and requires just 4-bytes per function.
+
+The compact unwind encoding is a 32-bit value, which is encoded in an
+architecture-specific way. It specifies which registers to restore and from
+where, and how to unwind out of the function. When the linker creates a final
+linked image, it will create a ``__TEXT,__unwind_info`` section. This section is
+a small and fast way for the runtime to access unwind info for any given
+function. If we emit compact unwind info for the function, that compact unwind
+info will be encoded in the ``__TEXT,__unwind_info`` section. If we emit DWARF
+unwind info, the ``__TEXT,__unwind_info`` section will contain the offset of the
+FDE in the ``__TEXT,__eh_frame`` section in the final linked image.
+
+For X86, there are three modes for the compact unwind encoding:
+
+*Function with a Frame Pointer (``EBP`` or ``RBP``)*
+  ``EBP/RBP``-based frame, where ``EBP/RBP`` is pushed onto the stack
+  immediately after the return address, then ``ESP/RSP`` is moved to
+  ``EBP/RBP``. Thus to unwind, ``ESP/RSP`` is restored with the current
+  ``EBP/RBP`` value, then ``EBP/RBP`` is restored by popping the stack, and the
+  return is done by popping the stack once more into the PC. All non-volatile
+  registers that need to be restored must have been saved in a small range on
+  the stack that starts ``EBP-4`` to ``EBP-1020`` (``RBP-8`` to
+  ``RBP-1020``). The offset (divided by 4 in 32-bit mode and 8 in 64-bit mode)
+  is encoded in bits 16-23 (mask: ``0x00FF0000``).  The registers saved are
+  encoded in bits 0-14 (mask: ``0x00007FFF``) as five 3-bit entries from the
+  following table:
+
+    ==============  =============  ===============
+    Compact Number  i386 Register  x86-64 Register
+    ==============  =============  ===============
+    1               ``EBX``        ``RBX``
+    2               ``ECX``        ``R12``
+    3               ``EDX``        ``R13``
+    4               ``EDI``        ``R14``
+    5               ``ESI``        ``R15``
+    6               ``EBP``        ``RBP``
+    ==============  =============  ===============
+
+*Frameless with a Small Constant Stack Size (``EBP`` or ``RBP`` is not used as a frame pointer)*
+  To return, a constant (encoded in the compact unwind encoding) is added to the
+  ``ESP/RSP``.  Then the return is done by popping the stack into the PC. All
+  non-volatile registers that need to be restored must have been saved on the
+  stack immediately after the return address. The stack size (divided by 4 in
+  32-bit mode and 8 in 64-bit mode) is encoded in bits 16-23 (mask:
+  ``0x00FF0000``). There is a maximum stack size of 1024 bytes in 32-bit mode
+  and 2048 in 64-bit mode. The number of registers saved is encoded in bits 9-12
+  (mask: ``0x00001C00``). Bits 0-9 (mask: ``0x000003FF``) contain which
+  registers were saved and their order. (See the
+  ``encodeCompactUnwindRegistersWithoutFrame()`` function in
+  ``lib/Target/X86FrameLowering.cpp`` for the encoding algorithm.)
+
+*Frameless with a Large Constant Stack Size (``EBP`` or ``RBP`` is not used as a frame pointer)*
+  This case is like the "Frameless with a Small Constant Stack Size" case, but
+  the stack size is too large to encode in the compact unwind encoding. Instead
+  it requires that the function contains "``subl $nnnnnn, %esp``" in its
+  prolog. The compact encoding contains the offset to the ``$nnnnnn`` value in
+  the function in bits 9-12 (mask: ``0x00001C00``).
+
+.. _Late Machine Code Optimizations:
+
+Late Machine Code Optimizations
+-------------------------------
+
+.. note::
+
+  To Be Written
+
+.. _Code Emission:
+
+Code Emission
+-------------
+
+The code emission step of code generation is responsible for lowering from the
+code generator abstractions (like `MachineFunction`_, `MachineInstr`_, etc) down
+to the abstractions used by the MC layer (`MCInst`_, `MCStreamer`_, etc).  This
+is done with a combination of several different classes: the (misnamed)
+target-independent AsmPrinter class, target-specific subclasses of AsmPrinter
+(such as SparcAsmPrinter), and the TargetLoweringObjectFile class.
+
+Since the MC layer works at the level of abstraction of object files, it doesn't
+have a notion of functions, global variables etc.  Instead, it thinks about
+labels, directives, and instructions.  A key class used at this time is the
+MCStreamer class.  This is an abstract API that is implemented in different ways
+(e.g. to output a .s file, output an ELF .o file, etc) that is effectively an
+"assembler API".  MCStreamer has one method per directive, such as EmitLabel,
+EmitSymbolAttribute, SwitchSection, etc, which directly correspond to assembly
+level directives.
+
+If you are interested in implementing a code generator for a target, there are
+three important things that you have to implement for your target:
+
+#. First, you need a subclass of AsmPrinter for your target.  This class
+   implements the general lowering process converting MachineFunction's into MC
+   label constructs.  The AsmPrinter base class provides a number of useful
+   methods and routines, and also allows you to override the lowering process in
+   some important ways.  You should get much of the lowering for free if you are
+   implementing an ELF, COFF, or MachO target, because the
+   TargetLoweringObjectFile class implements much of the common logic.
+
+#. Second, you need to implement an instruction printer for your target.  The
+   instruction printer takes an `MCInst`_ and renders it to a raw_ostream as
+   text.  Most of this is automatically generated from the .td file (when you
+   specify something like "``add $dst, $src1, $src2``" in the instructions), but
+   you need to implement routines to print operands.
+
+#. Third, you need to implement code that lowers a `MachineInstr`_ to an MCInst,
+   usually implemented in "<target>MCInstLower.cpp".  This lowering process is
+   often target specific, and is responsible for turning jump table entries,
+   constant pool indices, global variable addresses, etc into MCLabels as
+   appropriate.  This translation layer is also responsible for expanding pseudo
+   ops used by the code generator into the actual machine instructions they
+   correspond to. The MCInsts that are generated by this are fed into the
+   instruction printer or the encoder.
+
+Finally, at your choosing, you can also implement an subclass of MCCodeEmitter
+which lowers MCInst's into machine code bytes and relocations.  This is
+important if you want to support direct .o file emission, or would like to
+implement an assembler for your target.
+
+VLIW Packetizer
+---------------
+
+In a Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) architecture, the compiler is responsible
+for mapping instructions to functional-units available on the architecture. To
+that end, the compiler creates groups of instructions called *packets* or
+*bundles*. The VLIW packetizer in LLVM is a target-independent mechanism to
+enable the packetization of machine instructions.
+
+Mapping from instructions to functional units
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Instructions in a VLIW target can typically be mapped to multiple functional
+units. During the process of packetizing, the compiler must be able to reason
+about whether an instruction can be added to a packet. This decision can be
+complex since the compiler has to examine all possible mappings of instructions
+to functional units. Therefore to alleviate compilation-time complexity, the
+VLIW packetizer parses the instruction classes of a target and generates tables
+at compiler build time. These tables can then be queried by the provided
+machine-independent API to determine if an instruction can be accommodated in a
+packet.
+
+How the packetization tables are generated and used
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The packetizer reads instruction classes from a target's itineraries and creates
+a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) to represent the state of a packet. A DFA
+consists of three major elements: inputs, states, and transitions. The set of
+inputs for the generated DFA represents the instruction being added to a
+packet. The states represent the possible consumption of functional units by
+instructions in a packet. In the DFA, transitions from one state to another
+occur on the addition of an instruction to an existing packet. If there is a
+legal mapping of functional units to instructions, then the DFA contains a
+corresponding transition. The absence of a transition indicates that a legal
+mapping does not exist and that the instruction cannot be added to the packet.
+
+To generate tables for a VLIW target, add *Target*\ GenDFAPacketizer.inc as a
+target to the Makefile in the target directory. The exported API provides three
+functions: ``DFAPacketizer::clearResources()``,
+``DFAPacketizer::reserveResources(MachineInstr *MI)``, and
+``DFAPacketizer::canReserveResources(MachineInstr *MI)``. These functions allow
+a target packetizer to add an instruction to an existing packet and to check
+whether an instruction can be added to a packet. See
+``llvm/CodeGen/DFAPacketizer.h`` for more information.
+
+Implementing a Native Assembler
+===============================
+
+Though you're probably reading this because you want to write or maintain a
+compiler backend, LLVM also fully supports building a native assemblers too.
+We've tried hard to automate the generation of the assembler from the .td files
+(in particular the instruction syntax and encodings), which means that a large
+part of the manual and repetitive data entry can be factored and shared with the
+compiler.
+
+Instruction Parsing
+-------------------
+
+.. note::
+
+  To Be Written
+
+
+Instruction Alias Processing
+----------------------------
+
+Once the instruction is parsed, it enters the MatchInstructionImpl function.
+The MatchInstructionImpl function performs alias processing and then does actual
+matching.
+
+Alias processing is the phase that canonicalizes different lexical forms of the
+same instructions down to one representation.  There are several different kinds
+of alias that are possible to implement and they are listed below in the order
+that they are processed (which is in order from simplest/weakest to most
+complex/powerful).  Generally you want to use the first alias mechanism that
+meets the needs of your instruction, because it will allow a more concise
+description.
+
+Mnemonic Aliases
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The first phase of alias processing is simple instruction mnemonic remapping for
+classes of instructions which are allowed with two different mnemonics.  This
+phase is a simple and unconditionally remapping from one input mnemonic to one
+output mnemonic.  It isn't possible for this form of alias to look at the
+operands at all, so the remapping must apply for all forms of a given mnemonic.
+Mnemonic aliases are defined simply, for example X86 has:
+
+::
+
+  def : MnemonicAlias<"cbw",     "cbtw">;
+  def : MnemonicAlias<"smovq",   "movsq">;
+  def : MnemonicAlias<"fldcww",  "fldcw">;
+  def : MnemonicAlias<"fucompi", "fucomip">;
+  def : MnemonicAlias<"ud2a",    "ud2">;
+
+... and many others.  With a MnemonicAlias definition, the mnemonic is remapped
+simply and directly.  Though MnemonicAlias's can't look at any aspect of the
+instruction (such as the operands) they can depend on global modes (the same
+ones supported by the matcher), through a Requires clause:
+
+::
+
+  def : MnemonicAlias<"pushf", "pushfq">, Requires<[In64BitMode]>;
+  def : MnemonicAlias<"pushf", "pushfl">, Requires<[In32BitMode]>;
+
+In this example, the mnemonic gets mapped into different a new one depending on
+the current instruction set.
+
+Instruction Aliases
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The most general phase of alias processing occurs while matching is happening:
+it provides new forms for the matcher to match along with a specific instruction
+to generate.  An instruction alias has two parts: the string to match and the
+instruction to generate.  For example:
+
+::
+
+  def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX16rr8W GR16:$dst, GR8  :$src)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX16rm8W GR16:$dst, i8mem:$src)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX32rr8  GR32:$dst, GR8  :$src)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX32rr16 GR32:$dst, GR16 :$src)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX64rr8  GR64:$dst, GR8  :$src)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX64rr16 GR64:$dst, GR16 :$src)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"movsx $src, $dst", (MOVSX64rr32 GR64:$dst, GR32 :$src)>;
+
+This shows a powerful example of the instruction aliases, matching the same
+mnemonic in multiple different ways depending on what operands are present in
+the assembly.  The result of instruction aliases can include operands in a
+different order than the destination instruction, and can use an input multiple
+times, for example:
+
+::
+
+  def : InstAlias<"clrb $reg", (XOR8rr  GR8 :$reg, GR8 :$reg)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"clrw $reg", (XOR16rr GR16:$reg, GR16:$reg)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"clrl $reg", (XOR32rr GR32:$reg, GR32:$reg)>;
+  def : InstAlias<"clrq $reg", (XOR64rr GR64:$reg, GR64:$reg)>;
+
+This example also shows that tied operands are only listed once.  In the X86
+backend, XOR8rr has two input GR8's and one output GR8 (where an input is tied
+to the output).  InstAliases take a flattened operand list without duplicates
+for tied operands.  The result of an instruction alias can also use immediates
+and fixed physical registers which are added as simple immediate operands in the
+result, for example:
+
+::
+
+  // Fixed Immediate operand.
+  def : InstAlias<"aad", (AAD8i8 10)>;
+
+  // Fixed register operand.
+  def : InstAlias<"fcomi", (COM_FIr ST1)>;
+
+  // Simple alias.
+  def : InstAlias<"fcomi $reg", (COM_FIr RST:$reg)>;
+
+Instruction aliases can also have a Requires clause to make them subtarget
+specific.
+
+If the back-end supports it, the instruction printer can automatically emit the
+alias rather than what's being aliased. It typically leads to better, more
+readable code. If it's better to print out what's being aliased, then pass a '0'
+as the third parameter to the InstAlias definition.
+
+Instruction Matching
+--------------------
+
+.. note::
+
+  To Be Written
+
+.. _Implementations of the abstract target description interfaces:
+.. _implement the target description:
+
+Target-specific Implementation Notes
+====================================
+
+This section of the document explains features or design decisions that are
+specific to the code generator for a particular target.  First we start with a
+table that summarizes what features are supported by each target.
+
+Target Feature Matrix
+---------------------
+
+Note that this table does not include the C backend or Cpp backends, since they
+do not use the target independent code generator infrastructure.  It also
+doesn't list features that are not supported fully by any target yet.  It
+considers a feature to be supported if at least one subtarget supports it.  A
+feature being supported means that it is useful and works for most cases, it
+does not indicate that there are zero known bugs in the implementation.  Here is
+the key:
+
+:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Unknown</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>No support</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Partial Support</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Complete Support</th>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="partial"></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`</table>`
+
+Here is the table:
+
+:raw-html:`<table width="689" border="1" cellspacing="0">`
+:raw-html:`<tr><td></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td colspan="13" align="center" style="background-color:#ffc">Target</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Feature</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>ARM</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>CellSPU</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Hexagon</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>MBlaze</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>MSP430</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Mips</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>PTX</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>PowerPC</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Sparc</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>X86</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>XCore</th>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_reliable">is generally reliable</a></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- CellSPU -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PTX -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_asmparser">assembly parser</a></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- CellSPU -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PTX -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_disassembler">disassembler</a></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- CellSPU -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PTX -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_inlineasm">inline asm</a></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- CellSPU -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- PTX -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_jit">jit</a></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="partial"><a href="#feat_jit_arm">*</a></td> <!-- ARM -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- CellSPU -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- PTX -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_objectwrite">.o&nbsp;file writing</a></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- CellSPU -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PTX -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td><a hr:raw-html:`ef="#feat_tailcall">tail calls</a></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- CellSPU -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- PTX -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="yes"></td> <!-- X86 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="unknown"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td><a href="#feat_segstacks">segmented stacks</a></td>`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- ARM -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- CellSPU -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Hexagon -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MBlaze -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- MSP430 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Mips -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PTX -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- PowerPC -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- Sparc -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="partial"><a href="#feat_segstacks_x86">*</a></td> <!-- X86 -->`
+:raw-html:`<td class="no"></td> <!-- XCore -->`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+
+:raw-html:`</table>`
+
+.. _feat_reliable:
+
+Is Generally Reliable
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This box indicates whether the target is considered to be production quality.
+This indicates that the target has been used as a static compiler to compile
+large amounts of code by a variety of different people and is in continuous use.
+
+.. _feat_asmparser:
+
+Assembly Parser
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This box indicates whether the target supports parsing target specific .s files
+by implementing the MCAsmParser interface.  This is required for llvm-mc to be
+able to act as a native assembler and is required for inline assembly support in
+the native .o file writer.
+
+.. _feat_disassembler:
+
+Disassembler
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This box indicates whether the target supports the MCDisassembler API for
+disassembling machine opcode bytes into MCInst's.
+
+.. _feat_inlineasm:
+
+Inline Asm
+^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This box indicates whether the target supports most popular inline assembly
+constraints and modifiers.
+
+.. _feat_jit:
+
+JIT Support
+^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This box indicates whether the target supports the JIT compiler through the
+ExecutionEngine interface.
+
+.. _feat_jit_arm:
+
+The ARM backend has basic support for integer code in ARM codegen mode, but
+lacks NEON and full Thumb support.
+
+.. _feat_objectwrite:
+
+.o File Writing
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This box indicates whether the target supports writing .o files (e.g. MachO,
+ELF, and/or COFF) files directly from the target.  Note that the target also
+must include an assembly parser and general inline assembly support for full
+inline assembly support in the .o writer.
+
+Targets that don't support this feature can obviously still write out .o files,
+they just rely on having an external assembler to translate from a .s file to a
+.o file (as is the case for many C compilers).
+
+.. _feat_tailcall:
+
+Tail Calls
+^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This box indicates whether the target supports guaranteed tail calls.  These are
+calls marked "`tail <LangRef.html#i_call>`_" and use the fastcc calling
+convention.  Please see the `tail call section more more details`_.
+
+.. _feat_segstacks:
+
+Segmented Stacks
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This box indicates whether the target supports segmented stacks. This replaces
+the traditional large C stack with many linked segments. It is compatible with
+the `gcc implementation <http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/SplitStacks>`_ used by the Go
+front end.
+
+.. _feat_segstacks_x86:
+
+Basic support exists on the X86 backend. Currently vararg doesn't work and the
+object files are not marked the way the gold linker expects, but simple Go
+programs can be built by dragonegg.
+
+.. _tail call section more more details:
+
+Tail call optimization
+----------------------
+
+Tail call optimization, callee reusing the stack of the caller, is currently
+supported on x86/x86-64 and PowerPC. It is performed if:
+
+* Caller and callee have the calling convention ``fastcc`` or ``cc 10`` (GHC
+  call convention).
+
+* The call is a tail call - in tail position (ret immediately follows call and
+  ret uses value of call or is void).
+
+* Option ``-tailcallopt`` is enabled.
+
+* Platform specific constraints are met.
+
+x86/x86-64 constraints:
+
+* No variable argument lists are used.
+
+* On x86-64 when generating GOT/PIC code only module-local calls (visibility =
+  hidden or protected) are supported.
+
+PowerPC constraints:
+
+* No variable argument lists are used.
+
+* No byval parameters are used.
+
+* On ppc32/64 GOT/PIC only module-local calls (visibility = hidden or protected)
+  are supported.
+
+Example:
+
+Call as ``llc -tailcallopt test.ll``.
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  declare fastcc i32 @tailcallee(i32 inreg %a1, i32 inreg %a2, i32 %a3, i32 %a4)
+
+  define fastcc i32 @tailcaller(i32 %in1, i32 %in2) {
+    %l1 = add i32 %in1, %in2
+    %tmp = tail call fastcc i32 @tailcallee(i32 %in1 inreg, i32 %in2 inreg, i32 %in1, i32 %l1)
+    ret i32 %tmp
+  }
+
+Implications of ``-tailcallopt``:
+
+To support tail call optimization in situations where the callee has more
+arguments than the caller a 'callee pops arguments' convention is used. This
+currently causes each ``fastcc`` call that is not tail call optimized (because
+one or more of above constraints are not met) to be followed by a readjustment
+of the stack. So performance might be worse in such cases.
+
+Sibling call optimization
+-------------------------
+
+Sibling call optimization is a restricted form of tail call optimization.
+Unlike tail call optimization described in the previous section, it can be
+performed automatically on any tail calls when ``-tailcallopt`` option is not
+specified.
+
+Sibling call optimization is currently performed on x86/x86-64 when the
+following constraints are met:
+
+* Caller and callee have the same calling convention. It can be either ``c`` or
+  ``fastcc``.
+
+* The call is a tail call - in tail position (ret immediately follows call and
+  ret uses value of call or is void).
+
+* Caller and callee have matching return type or the callee result is not used.
+
+* If any of the callee arguments are being passed in stack, they must be
+  available in caller's own incoming argument stack and the frame offsets must
+  be the same.
+
+Example:
+
+.. code-block:: llvm
+
+  declare i32 @bar(i32, i32)
+
+  define i32 @foo(i32 %a, i32 %b, i32 %c) {
+  entry:
+    %0 = tail call i32 @bar(i32 %a, i32 %b)
+    ret i32 %0
+  }
+
+The X86 backend
+---------------
+
+The X86 code generator lives in the ``lib/Target/X86`` directory.  This code
+generator is capable of targeting a variety of x86-32 and x86-64 processors, and
+includes support for ISA extensions such as MMX and SSE.
+
+X86 Target Triples supported
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The following are the known target triples that are supported by the X86
+backend.  This is not an exhaustive list, and it would be useful to add those
+that people test.
+
+* **i686-pc-linux-gnu** --- Linux
+
+* **i386-unknown-freebsd5.3** --- FreeBSD 5.3
+
+* **i686-pc-cygwin** --- Cygwin on Win32
+
+* **i686-pc-mingw32** --- MingW on Win32
+
+* **i386-pc-mingw32msvc** --- MingW crosscompiler on Linux
+
+* **i686-apple-darwin*** --- Apple Darwin on X86
+
+* **x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu** --- Linux
+
+X86 Calling Conventions supported
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The following target-specific calling conventions are known to backend:
+
+* **x86_StdCall** --- stdcall calling convention seen on Microsoft Windows
+  platform (CC ID = 64).
+
+* **x86_FastCall** --- fastcall calling convention seen on Microsoft Windows
+  platform (CC ID = 65).
+
+* **x86_ThisCall** --- Similar to X86_StdCall. Passes first argument in ECX,
+  others via stack. Callee is responsible for stack cleaning. This convention is
+  used by MSVC by default for methods in its ABI (CC ID = 70).
+
+.. _X86 addressing mode:
+
+Representing X86 addressing modes in MachineInstrs
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The x86 has a very flexible way of accessing memory.  It is capable of forming
+memory addresses of the following expression directly in integer instructions
+(which use ModR/M addressing):
+
+::
+
+  SegmentReg: Base + [1,2,4,8] * IndexReg + Disp32
+
+In order to represent this, LLVM tracks no less than 5 operands for each memory
+operand of this form.  This means that the "load" form of '``mov``' has the
+following ``MachineOperand``\s in this order:
+
+::
+
+  Index:        0     |    1        2       3           4          5
+  Meaning:   DestReg, | BaseReg,  Scale, IndexReg, Displacement Segment
+  OperandTy: VirtReg, | VirtReg, UnsImm, VirtReg,   SignExtImm  PhysReg
+
+Stores, and all other instructions, treat the four memory operands in the same
+way and in the same order.  If the segment register is unspecified (regno = 0),
+then no segment override is generated.  "Lea" operations do not have a segment
+register specified, so they only have 4 operands for their memory reference.
+
+X86 address spaces supported
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+x86 has a feature which provides the ability to perform loads and stores to
+different address spaces via the x86 segment registers.  A segment override
+prefix byte on an instruction causes the instruction's memory access to go to
+the specified segment.  LLVM address space 0 is the default address space, which
+includes the stack, and any unqualified memory accesses in a program.  Address
+spaces 1-255 are currently reserved for user-defined code.  The GS-segment is
+represented by address space 256, while the FS-segment is represented by address
+space 257. Other x86 segments have yet to be allocated address space
+numbers.
+
+While these address spaces may seem similar to TLS via the ``thread_local``
+keyword, and often use the same underlying hardware, there are some fundamental
+differences.
+
+The ``thread_local`` keyword applies to global variables and specifies that they
+are to be allocated in thread-local memory. There are no type qualifiers
+involved, and these variables can be pointed to with normal pointers and
+accessed with normal loads and stores.  The ``thread_local`` keyword is
+target-independent at the LLVM IR level (though LLVM doesn't yet have
+implementations of it for some configurations)
+
+Special address spaces, in contrast, apply to static types. Every load and store
+has a particular address space in its address operand type, and this is what
+determines which address space is accessed.  LLVM ignores these special address
+space qualifiers on global variables, and does not provide a way to directly
+allocate storage in them.  At the LLVM IR level, the behavior of these special
+address spaces depends in part on the underlying OS or runtime environment, and
+they are specific to x86 (and LLVM doesn't yet handle them correctly in some
+cases).
+
+Some operating systems and runtime environments use (or may in the future use)
+the FS/GS-segment registers for various low-level purposes, so care should be
+taken when considering them.
+
+Instruction naming
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+An instruction name consists of the base name, a default operand size, and a a
+character per operand with an optional special size. For example:
+
+::
+
+  ADD8rr      -> add, 8-bit register, 8-bit register
+  IMUL16rmi   -> imul, 16-bit register, 16-bit memory, 16-bit immediate
+  IMUL16rmi8  -> imul, 16-bit register, 16-bit memory, 8-bit immediate
+  MOVSX32rm16 -> movsx, 32-bit register, 16-bit memory
+
+The PowerPC backend
+-------------------
+
+The PowerPC code generator lives in the lib/Target/PowerPC directory.  The code
+generation is retargetable to several variations or *subtargets* of the PowerPC
+ISA; including ppc32, ppc64 and altivec.
+
+LLVM PowerPC ABI
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+LLVM follows the AIX PowerPC ABI, with two deviations. LLVM uses a PC relative
+(PIC) or static addressing for accessing global values, so no TOC (r2) is
+used. Second, r31 is used as a frame pointer to allow dynamic growth of a stack
+frame.  LLVM takes advantage of having no TOC to provide space to save the frame
+pointer in the PowerPC linkage area of the caller frame.  Other details of
+PowerPC ABI can be found at `PowerPC ABI
+<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/LowLevelABI/Articles/32bitPowerPC.html>`_\
+. Note: This link describes the 32 bit ABI.  The 64 bit ABI is similar except
+space for GPRs are 8 bytes wide (not 4) and r13 is reserved for system use.
+
+Frame Layout
+^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The size of a PowerPC frame is usually fixed for the duration of a function's
+invocation.  Since the frame is fixed size, all references into the frame can be
+accessed via fixed offsets from the stack pointer.  The exception to this is
+when dynamic alloca or variable sized arrays are present, then a base pointer
+(r31) is used as a proxy for the stack pointer and stack pointer is free to grow
+or shrink.  A base pointer is also used if llvm-gcc is not passed the
+-fomit-frame-pointer flag. The stack pointer is always aligned to 16 bytes, so
+that space allocated for altivec vectors will be properly aligned.
+
+An invocation frame is laid out as follows (low memory at top):
+
+:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Linkage<br><br></td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Parameter area<br><br></td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Dynamic area<br><br></td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Locals area<br><br></td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved registers area<br><br></td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr style="border-style: none hidden none hidden;">`
+:raw-html:`<td><br></td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Previous Frame<br><br></td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`</table>`
+
+The *linkage* area is used by a callee to save special registers prior to
+allocating its own frame.  Only three entries are relevant to LLVM. The first
+entry is the previous stack pointer (sp), aka link.  This allows probing tools
+like gdb or exception handlers to quickly scan the frames in the stack.  A
+function epilog can also use the link to pop the frame from the stack.  The
+third entry in the linkage area is used to save the return address from the lr
+register. Finally, as mentioned above, the last entry is used to save the
+previous frame pointer (r31.)  The entries in the linkage area are the size of a
+GPR, thus the linkage area is 24 bytes long in 32 bit mode and 48 bytes in 64
+bit mode.
+
+32 bit linkage area:
+
+:raw-html:`<table  border="1" cellspacing="0">`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>0</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved SP (r1)</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>4</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved CR</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>8</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved LR</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>12</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Reserved</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>16</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Reserved</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>20</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved FP (r31)</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`</table>`
+
+64 bit linkage area:
+
+:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>0</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved SP (r1)</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>8</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved CR</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>16</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved LR</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>24</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Reserved</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>32</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Reserved</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>40</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td>Saved FP (r31)</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`</table>`
+
+The *parameter area* is used to store arguments being passed to a callee
+function.  Following the PowerPC ABI, the first few arguments are actually
+passed in registers, with the space in the parameter area unused.  However, if
+there are not enough registers or the callee is a thunk or vararg function,
+these register arguments can be spilled into the parameter area.  Thus, the
+parameter area must be large enough to store all the parameters for the largest
+call sequence made by the caller.  The size must also be minimally large enough
+to spill registers r3-r10.  This allows callees blind to the call signature,
+such as thunks and vararg functions, enough space to cache the argument
+registers.  Therefore, the parameter area is minimally 32 bytes (64 bytes in 64
+bit mode.)  Also note that since the parameter area is a fixed offset from the
+top of the frame, that a callee can access its spilt arguments using fixed
+offsets from the stack pointer (or base pointer.)
+
+Combining the information about the linkage, parameter areas and alignment. A
+stack frame is minimally 64 bytes in 32 bit mode and 128 bytes in 64 bit mode.
+
+The *dynamic area* starts out as size zero.  If a function uses dynamic alloca
+then space is added to the stack, the linkage and parameter areas are shifted to
+top of stack, and the new space is available immediately below the linkage and
+parameter areas.  The cost of shifting the linkage and parameter areas is minor
+since only the link value needs to be copied.  The link value can be easily
+fetched by adding the original frame size to the base pointer.  Note that
+allocations in the dynamic space need to observe 16 byte alignment.
+
+The *locals area* is where the llvm compiler reserves space for local variables.
+
+The *saved registers area* is where the llvm compiler spills callee saved
+registers on entry to the callee.
+
+Prolog/Epilog
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The llvm prolog and epilog are the same as described in the PowerPC ABI, with
+the following exceptions.  Callee saved registers are spilled after the frame is
+created.  This allows the llvm epilog/prolog support to be common with other
+targets.  The base pointer callee saved register r31 is saved in the TOC slot of
+linkage area.  This simplifies allocation of space for the base pointer and
+makes it convenient to locate programatically and during debugging.
+
+Dynamic Allocation
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+.. note::
+
+  TODO - More to come.
+
+The PTX backend
+---------------
+
+The PTX code generator lives in the lib/Target/PTX directory. It is currently a
+work-in-progress, but already supports most of the code generation functionality
+needed to generate correct PTX kernels for CUDA devices.
+
+The code generator can target PTX 2.0+, and shader model 1.0+.  The PTX ISA
+Reference Manual is used as the primary source of ISA information, though an
+effort is made to make the output of the code generator match the output of the
+NVidia nvcc compiler, whenever possible.
+
+Code Generator Options:
+
+:raw-html:`<table border="1" cellspacing="0">`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Option</th>`
+:raw-html:`<th>Description</th>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>``double``</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td align="left">If enabled, the map_f64_to_f32 directive is disabled in the PTX output, allowing native double-precision arithmetic</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>``no-fma``</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td align="left">Disable generation of Fused-Multiply Add instructions, which may be beneficial for some devices</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`<tr>`
+:raw-html:`<td>``smxy / computexy``</td>`
+:raw-html:`<td align="left">Set shader model/compute capability to x.y, e.g. sm20 or compute13</td>`
+:raw-html:`</tr>`
+:raw-html:`</table>`
+
+Working:
+
+* Arithmetic instruction selection (including combo FMA)
+
+* Bitwise instruction selection
+
+* Control-flow instruction selection
+
+* Function calls (only on SM 2.0+ and no return arguments)
+
+* Addresses spaces (0 = global, 1 = constant, 2 = local, 4 = shared)
+
+* Thread synchronization (bar.sync)
+
+* Special register reads ([N]TID, [N]CTAID, PMx, CLOCK, etc.)
+
+In Progress:
+
+* Robust call instruction selection
+
+* Stack frame allocation
+
+* Device-specific instruction scheduling optimizations