1 ==========================
2 KERNEL ABIS FOR METAG ARCH
3 ==========================
5 This document describes the Linux ABIs for the metag architecture, and has the
8 (*) Outline of registers
12 (*) Calling conventions
19 The main Meta core registers are arranged in units:
21 UNIT Type DESCRIPTION GP EXT PRIV GLOBAL
22 ======= ======= =============== ======= ======= ======= =======
23 CT Special Control unit
24 D0 General Data unit 0 0-7 8-15 16-31 16-31
25 D1 General Data unit 1 0-7 8-15 16-31 16-31
26 A0 General Address unit 0 0-3 4-7 8-15 8-15
27 A1 General Address unit 1 0-3 4-7 8-15 8-15
28 PC Special PC unit 0 1
30 TR Special Trigger unit 0-7
31 TT Special Trace unit 0-5
32 FX General FP unit 0-15
34 GP registers form part of the main context.
36 Extended context registers (EXT) may not be present on all hardware threads and
37 can be context switched if support is enabled and the appropriate bits are set
38 in e.g. the D0.8 register to indicate what extended state to preserve.
40 Global registers are shared between threads and are privilege protected.
42 See arch/metag/include/asm/metag_regs.h for definitions relating to core
43 registers and the fields and bits they contain. See the TRMs for further details
44 about special registers.
46 Several special registers are preserved in the main context, these are the
50 ======================= ===============================================
51 CT.1 (TXMODE) Processor mode bits (particularly for DSP)
52 CT.2 (TXSTATUS) Condition flags and LSM_STEP (MGET/MSET step)
53 CT.3 (TXRPT) Branch repeat counter
54 PC.0 (PC) Program counter
56 Some of the general registers have special purposes in the ABI and therefore
59 D0 REG (ALIAS) PURPOSE D1 REG (ALIAS) PURPOSE
60 =============== =============== =============== =======================
61 D0.0 (D0Re0) 32bit result D1.0 (D1Re0) Top half of 64bit result
62 D0.1 (D0Ar6) Argument 6 D1.1 (D1Ar5) Argument 5
63 D0.2 (D0Ar4) Argument 4 D1.2 (D1Ar3) Argument 3
64 D0.3 (D0Ar2) Argument 2 D1.3 (D1Ar1) Argument 1
65 D0.4 (D0FrT) Frame temp D1.4 (D1RtP) Return pointer
66 D0.5 Call preserved D1.5 Call preserved
67 D0.6 Call preserved D1.6 Call preserved
68 D0.7 Call preserved D1.7 Call preserved
70 A0 REG (ALIAS) PURPOSE A1 REG (ALIAS) PURPOSE
71 =============== =============== =============== =======================
72 A0.0 (A0StP) Stack pointer A1.0 (A1GbP) Global base pointer
73 A0.1 (A0FrP) Frame pointer A1.1 (A1LbP) Local base pointer
82 All the general purpose D0, D1, A0, A1 registers are preserved when entering the
83 kernel (including asynchronous events such as interrupts and timer ticks) except
84 the following which have special purposes in the ABI:
86 REGISTERS WHEN STATUS PURPOSE
87 =============== ======= =============== ===============================
88 D0.8 DSP Preserved ECH, determines what extended
89 DSP state to preserve.
90 A0.0 (A0StP) ALWAYS Preserved Stack >= A0StP may be clobbered
91 at any time by the creation of a
93 A1.0 (A1GbP) SMP Clobbered Used as temporary for loading
94 kernel stack pointer and saving
96 A0.15 !SMP Protected Stores kernel stack pointer.
97 A1.15 ALWAYS Protected Stores kernel base pointer.
99 On UP A0.15 is used to store the kernel stack pointer for storing the userland
100 context. A0.15 is global between hardware threads though which means it cannot
101 be used on SMP for this purpose. Since no protected local registers are
102 available A1GbP is reserved for use as a temporary to allow a percpu stack
103 pointer to be loaded for storing the rest of the context.
110 When in the kernel the following registers have special purposes in the ABI:
112 REGISTERS WHEN STATUS PURPOSE
113 =============== ======= =============== ===============================
114 A0.0 (A0StP) ALWAYS Preserved Stack >= A0StP may be clobbered
115 at any time by the creation of
117 A1.0 (A1GbP) ALWAYS Preserved Reserved (kernel base pointer).
124 When a system call is made, the following registers are effective:
126 REGISTERS CALL RETURN
127 =============== ======================= ===============================
128 D0.0 (D0Re0) Return value (or -errno)
129 D1.0 (D1Re0) System call number Clobbered
130 D0.1 (D0Ar6) Syscall arg #6 Preserved
131 D1.1 (D1Ar5) Syscall arg #5 Preserved
132 D0.2 (D0Ar4) Syscall arg #4 Preserved
133 D1.2 (D1Ar3) Syscall arg #3 Preserved
134 D0.3 (D0Ar2) Syscall arg #2 Preserved
135 D1.3 (D1Ar1) Syscall arg #1 Preserved
137 Due to the limited number of argument registers and some system calls with badly
138 aligned 64-bit arguments, 64-bit values are always packed in consecutive
139 arguments, even if this is contrary to the normal calling conventions (where the
140 two halves would go in a matching pair of data registers).
142 For example fadvise64_64 usually has the signature:
144 long sys_fadvise64_64(i32 fd, i64 offs, i64 len, i32 advice);
146 But for metag fadvise64_64 is wrapped so that the 64-bit arguments are packed:
148 long sys_fadvise64_64_metag(i32 fd, i32 offs_lo,
149 i32 offs_hi, i32 len_lo,
150 i32 len_hi, i32 advice)
152 So the arguments are packed in the registers like this:
154 D0 REG (ALIAS) VALUE D1 REG (ALIAS) VALUE
155 =============== =============== =============== =======================
156 D0.1 (D0Ar6) advice D1.1 (D1Ar5) hi(len)
157 D0.2 (D0Ar4) lo(len) D1.2 (D1Ar3) hi(offs)
158 D0.3 (D0Ar2) lo(offs) D1.3 (D1Ar1) fd
165 These calling conventions apply to both user and kernel code. The stack grows
166 from low addresses to high addresses in the metag ABI. The stack pointer (A0StP)
167 should always point to the next free address on the stack and should at all
168 times be 64-bit aligned. The following registers are effective at the point of a
171 REGISTERS CALL RETURN
172 =============== ======================= ===============================
173 D0.0 (D0Re0) 32bit return value
174 D1.0 (D1Re0) Upper half of 64bit return value
175 D0.1 (D0Ar6) 32bit argument #6 Clobbered
176 D1.1 (D1Ar5) 32bit argument #5 Clobbered
177 D0.2 (D0Ar4) 32bit argument #4 Clobbered
178 D1.2 (D1Ar3) 32bit argument #3 Clobbered
179 D0.3 (D0Ar2) 32bit argument #2 Clobbered
180 D1.3 (D1Ar1) 32bit argument #1 Clobbered
181 D0.4 (D0FrT) Clobbered
182 D1.4 (D1RtP) Return pointer Clobbered
183 D{0-1}.{5-7} Preserved
184 A0.0 (A0StP) Stack pointer Preserved
185 A1.0 (A0GbP) Preserved
186 A0.1 (A0FrP) Frame pointer Preserved
187 A1.1 (A0LbP) Preserved
188 A{0-1},{2-3} Clobbered
190 64-bit arguments are placed in matching pairs of registers (i.e. the same
191 register number in both D0 and D1 units), with the least significant half in D0
192 and the most significant half in D1, leaving a gap where necessary. Further
193 arguments are stored on the stack in reverse order (earlier arguments at higher
196 ADDRESS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
197 =============== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== =====
199 A0StP-0x08 32bit argument #8 32bit argument #7
200 A0StP-0x10 32bit argument #10 32bit argument #9
202 Function prologues tend to look a bit like this:
204 /* If frame pointer in use, move it to frame temp register so it can be
205 easily pushed onto stack */
208 /* If frame pointer in use, set it to stack pointer */
211 /* Preserve D0FrT, D1RtP, D{0-1}.{5-7} on stack, incrementing A0StP */
212 MSETL [A0StP++],D0FrT,D0.5,D0.6,D0.7
214 /* Allocate some stack space for local variables */
215 ADD A0StP,A0StP,#0x10
217 At this point the stack would look like this:
219 ADDRESS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
220 =============== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== =====
224 A0StP-0x18 Old D0.7 Old D1.7
225 A0StP-0x20 Old D0.6 Old D1.6
226 A0StP-0x28 Old D0.5 Old D1.5
227 A0FrP --> Old A0FrP (frame ptr) Old D1RtP (return ptr)
228 A0FrP-0x08 32bit argument #8 32bit argument #7
229 A0FrP-0x10 32bit argument #10 32bit argument #9
231 Function epilogues tend to differ depending on the use of a frame pointer. An
232 example of a frame pointer epilogue:
234 /* Restore D0FrT, D1RtP, D{0-1}.{5-7} from stack, incrementing A0FrP */
235 MGETL D0FrT,D0.5,D0.6,D0.7,[A0FrP++]
236 /* Restore stack pointer to where frame pointer was before increment */
237 SUB A0StP,A0FrP,#0x20
238 /* Restore frame pointer from frame temp */
240 /* Return to caller via restored return pointer */
243 If the function hasn't touched the frame pointer, MGETL cannot be safely used
244 with A0StP as it always increments and that would expose the stack to clobbering
245 by interrupts (kernel) or signals (user). Therefore it's common to see the MGETL
246 split into separate GETL instructions:
248 /* Restore D0FrT, D1RtP, D{0-1}.{5-7} from stack */
249 GETL D0FrT,D1RtP,[A0StP+#-0x30]
250 GETL D0.5,D1.5,[A0StP+#-0x28]
251 GETL D0.6,D1.6,[A0StP+#-0x20]
252 GETL D0.7,D1.7,[A0StP+#-0x18]
253 /* Restore stack pointer */
254 SUB A0StP,A0StP,#0x30
255 /* Return to caller via restored return pointer */