[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
This commit is contained in:
Matt Davis 2018-07-17 16:11:54 +00:00
parent e8c44066cc
commit 7447fc96e1

View File

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