Reply To: Binary distribution for a Mill

1) App distribution in binary vs. IR:

Certain parts of the software, such as the minimal BIOS and the boot specializer, must be distributed in binary. These will normally reside on a ROM, and the distribution of changes likely involves reflashing the ROM; vendors other than hardware manufacturers will never need to do this. Kernel vendors will distribute in IR form using the minimal canonical IR which is acceptable to the specializer in the ROM. Included in the kernel package will be a more feature-full app-IR specializer in ROM-IR form. That will be translated to native binary, and then run through itself so that the installed app-specializer has all the app-level features for its own work of translating app-IR to binary. Cascaded compiling-the-compiler is routine for cross-compilation, which is really what a Mill install is and does.

Other than updating the boot ROM there is really no reason to distribute pre-specialized code in binary. Even assembler-like code can be represented in Mill IR as intrinsics. Now it is possible to have Mill configs with extra nonstandard instructions, and code that uses those won’t run if the instruction doesn’t exist in the target config at hand. But you’d still use IR for it – and get a specializer error if the requisite intrinsic is not found.

2) Dynamic exit prediction update in read-only systems:

Prediction update is just an optimization: it starts the predictor table off with the state from prior runs instead of empty. If the load module cannot be written then the optimization doesn’t happen. Conceivably the vendor could build a table using a mutable load module and then distribute the module as binary. The gain from the optimization is unlikely to justify the nuisance of maintaining multiple binaries for the different members.

3) Sharing predictor history:

Certainly predictor history could be separated from the binary code that uses/updates it. However, the history is tied to a particular config just like the specialized code is, so you’d have the administrative booking problem of making sure that both addressed the same config.

3 redux) Varying config binary ISAs:

It’s common that configs lack some instructions that others have. For example, some of our test configs lack floating-point or quad (128-bit) data forms. The specializer still recognizes these in the IR, and generates calls on emulation routines, which are often inlined. The substitution is automatic – the install provides signature info and the corresponding routine for everything potentially in the IR.

The sig/emu info is tied to an IR level. If the IR changes to a new release then the installation must be upgraded with info to match. If you present an object module that uses IR12 but only IR9 is installed then you’ll get an error in the app install. It doesn’t matterwhether the actual hardware has the instructions: the specializer knows what the hardware can do, so it uses hardware if possible and emu otherwise. The IR install may provide emu routines for instructions that the particular hardware actually has; the hardware will be used.