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[llvm-mca][docs] Revert mca internals docs.
We're going to work on this in a separate review focusing more on documenting the View and probably removing some of the less-interesting/less-useful pieces. This reverts r337219,337225 llvm-svn: 337295
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@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ instruction in the input file. Every region is analyzed in isolation, and the
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final performance report is the union of all the reports generated for every
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code region.
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Inline assembly directives may be used from source code to annotate the
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Inline assembly directives may be used from source code to annotate the
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assembly text:
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.. code-block:: c++
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@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ option specifies "``-``", then the output will also be sent to standard output.
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Specify the size of the load queue in the load/store unit emulated by the tool.
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By default, the tool assumes an unbound number of entries in the load queue.
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A value of zero for this flag is ignored, and the default load queue size is
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used instead.
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used instead.
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.. option:: -squeue=<store queue size>
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@ -200,105 +200,10 @@ option specifies "``-``", then the output will also be sent to standard output.
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the theoretical uniform distribution of resource pressure for every
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instruction in sequence.
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EXIT STATUS
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-----------
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:program:`llvm-mca` returns 0 on success. Otherwise, an error message is printed
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to standard error, and the tool returns 1.
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INTERNALS
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---------
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Why MCA? For many analysis scenarios :program:`llvm-mca` (MCA) should work
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just fine out of the box; however, the tools MCA provides allows for the
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curious to create their own pipelines, and explore the finer details of
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instruction processing.
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MCA is designed to be a flexible framework allowing users to easily create
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custom instruction pipeline simulations. The following section describes the
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primary components necessary for creating a pipeline, namely the classes
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``Pipeline``, ``Stage``, ``HardwareUnit``, and ``View``.
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In most cases, creating a custom pipeline is not necessary, and using the
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default ``mca::Context::createDefaultPipeline`` will work just fine. Instead,
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a user will probably find it easier, and faster, to implement a custom
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``View``, allowing them to specifically handle the processing and presenting of
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data. Views are discussed towards the end of this document, as it can be
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helpful to first understand how the rest of MCA is structured and where the
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views sit in the bigger picture.
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Primary Components of MCA
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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A pipeline is a collection of stages. Stages are the real workhorse of
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MCA, since all of the instruction processing occurs within them. A stage
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operates on instructions (``InstRef``) and utilizes the simulated hardware
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units (``HardwareUnit``). We draw a strong distinction between a ``Stage`` and
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a ``HardwareUnit``. Stages make use of HardwareUnits to accomplish their
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primary action, which is defined in ``mca::Stage::execute``. HardwareUnits
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maintain state and act as a mechanism for inter-stage communication. For
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instance, both ``DispatchStage`` and ``RetireStage`` stages make use of the
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simulated ``RegisterFile`` hardware unit for updating the state of particular
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registers.
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The pipeline's role is to simply execute the stages in order. During
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execution, a stage can return ``false`` from ``mca::Stage:execute``, indicating
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to the pipeline that no more executions are to continue for the current cycle.
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This mechanism allows for a stage to short-circuit the rest of execution for
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any cycle.
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Views
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^^^^^
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Of course simulating a pipeline is great, but it's not very useful if a user
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cannot extract data from it! This is where views come into play. The goal of a
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``View`` is to collect events from the pipeline's stages. The view can
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analyze and present this collected information in a more comprehensible manner.
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If the default views provided by MCA are not sufficient, then a user might
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consider implementing a custom data collection and presentation mechanism (a
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``View``). Views receive callback notifications from the pipeline simulation,
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specifically from the stages. To accomplish this communication, stages contain
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a list of listeners. A view is a listener (``HWEventListener``) and can be
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added to a single stage's list of listeners, or to all stages lists, by
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expressing interest to be notified when particular hardware events occur (e.g.,
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a hardware stall).
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Notifications are generated within the stages. When an event occurs, the stage
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will iterate through its list of listeners (presumably a View) and will send
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an event object describing the situation to the Listener.
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What Data does a View Collect?
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""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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The two primary event types sent to views are instruction events
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(``HWInstructionEvent``) and stall events (``HWStallEvent``). The former
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describes the state of an instruction (e.g., Ready, Dispatched, Executed,
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etc.). The latter describes a stall hazard (e.g., load stall, store stall,
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scheduler stall, etc.).
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In addition to the instruction and stall events. A listener can also
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subscribe to cycle events (``onCycleStart``, ``onCycleEnd``). These events
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occur before and after a simulated clock cycle is executed, respectively.
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Listeners can also be notified of various resource states within the stages
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of a pipeline, such as resource availability, reservation, and reclaim:
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(``onResourceAvailability``, ``onReservedBuffers``, ``onReleasedBuffers``).
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Creating a Custom View
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""""""""""""""""""""""
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To create a custom view, the user must first inherit from the ``View`` class
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and then decide which events are of interest. The ``HWEventListener`` class
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declares the callback functions for the particular event types. A custom view
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should define the callbacks for the events of interest.
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Next, the view should define a ``mca::View::printView`` method. This is called
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once the pipeline has completed executing all of the desired cycles. A
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user can choose to perform analysis in the aforementioned routine, or do the
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analysis incrementally as the event callbacks are triggered. All presentation
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of the data should be performed in ``printView``.
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With a view created, the next step is to tell the pipeline's stages about it.
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The simplest way to accomplish this is to create a ``PipelinePrinter`` object
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and call ``mca::PipelinePrinter::addView``. We have not discussed the
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PipelinePrinter before, but it is simply a helper class containing a collection
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of views and a pointer to the pipeline instance. When ``addView`` is called,
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the printer will take the liberty of registering the view as a listener to all
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of the stages in the pipeline. The printer provides a ``printReport`` routine
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that iterates across all views and calls each view's ``printView`` method.
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