Mill Computing, Inc. Forums The Mill Architecture Introduction to the Mill CPU Programming Model Reply To: Introduction to the Mill CPU Programming Model

Ivan Godard
Keymaster
Post count: 689

You ask good questions 🙂 (A variation on the Chinese curse: “May you receive good questions”). I had to go look at the code in the sim to answer.

We detect various problems in the load/store logic in different ways and at different places, so please bear with a rather complex explanation.

The generic Mill address is base+(scaled index)+offset. Offset is a literal in the instruction; index if present is from the belt, and base may be either from the belt or one of a specific set of specRegs.

SpecRegs cannot be None or NaR. However, the encoding used for the specReg (in the instruction forms that use it) may have bit combinations that are not valid. Use of such a combination, as with other illegal encodings, reflects a compiler bug and gets a fault and the usual trip through handlers. There is special handling for tpReg (“this” pointer). If tpReg is used as a base when the register has not been set then a NaR is passed to the rest of the address calculation.

There are a different set of checks when the base is a pointer from the belt. There is a width check that the argument is a scalar of pointer width; failure faults because this is a compiler bug. None/NaR is passed on to the index check.

If the index is present there is a width check and we fault a vector index; a scalar index can be of any width. The index is then resized to pointer size, and scaled. If the resize or scaling overflows then we fault. This should probably pass on a NaR instead, but does not in the present sim. If the index was a None/NaR then these are passed on. For a missing index we pass on a zero.

At this point we have a base, index, and offset input to the 3-input address adder, and either base or index could be None/NaR. The address adder applies Mill pointer arithmetic rules, and in particular checks for overflow into the non-address bits in the pointer. An overflow is noted.

Now comes the None/NaR handling: if either of the base or index were None then the final address is one of the input Nones, otherwise if either of the inputs is NaR or the address-adder result overflowed then the final address is one of the NaRs from the input or a ne NaR if only overflow happened. Otherwise the final address is normal.

Now, if the operation is a store and either the final address or the value to be stored is None then the store is suppressed. If either the final address or the value to be stored is NaR then we fault. Otherwise the store proceeds, but may fault the protection check on the final address.

If the operation is a LEA and the final address is None then the result is the None as a pointer-sized scalar. Otherwise if the final address was NaR then the result is the NaR as a pointer-sized scalar. Otherwise the result is the final address as a pointer-sized normal scalar.

If the operation was a load and the final address was None then the result is an operand of the loaded scalarity and width all of whose elements are the None scaled to the element width. Otherwise if the final address was NaR then the result is an operand of the loaded scalarity and width all of whose elements are the NaR scaled to the element width. Otherwise the final address is normal and the loads proceeds.

You’re welcome.