User Guide for RISC-V Target

Introduction

The RISC-V target provides code generation for processors implementing supported variations of the RISC-V specification. It lives in the llvm/lib/Target/RISCV directory.

Base ISAs

The specification defines five base instruction sets: RV32I, RV32E, RV64I, RV64E, and RV128I. Currently, LLVM fully supports RV32I, and RV64I. RV32E and RV64E are supported by the assembly-based tools only. RV128I is not supported.

To specify the target triple:

RISC-V Architectures
Architecture Description
riscv32 RISC-V with XLEN=32 (i.e. RV32I or RV32E)
riscv64 RISC-V with XLEN=64 (i.e. RV64I or RV64E)

To select an E variant ISA (e.g. RV32E instead of RV32I), use the base architecture string (e.g. riscv32) with the extension e.

Extensions

The following table provides a status summary for extensions which have been ratified and thus have finalized specifications. When relevant, detailed notes on support follow.

Ratified Extensions by Status
Extension Status
A Supported
C Supported
D Supported
F Supported
H Assembly Support
M Supported
Svinval Assembly Support
Svnapot Assembly Support
Svpbmt Supported
V Supported
Zawrs Assembly Support
Zba Supported
Zbb Supported
Zbc Supported
Zbkb Supported (See note)
Zbkc Supported
Zbkx Supported (See note)
Zbs Supported
Zdinx Assembly Support
Zfh Supported
Zfhmin Supported
Zfinx Assembly Support
Zhinx Assembly Support
Zhinxmin Assembly Support
Zicbom Assembly Support
Zicbop Assembly Support
Zicboz Assembly Support
Zicsr (See Note)
Zifencei (See Note)
Zihintpause Assembly Support
Zkn Supported
Zknd Supported (See note)
Zkne Supported (See note)
Zknh Supported (See note)
Zksed Supported (See note)
Zksh Supported (See note)
Zk Supported
Zkr Supported
Zks Supported
Zkt Supported
Zmmul Supported
Zve32x (Partially) Supported
Zve32f (Partially) Supported
Zve64x Supported
Zve64f Supported
Zve64d Supported
Zvl32b (Partially) Supported
Zvl64b Supported
Zvl128b Supported
Zvl256b Supported
Zvl512b Supported
Zvl1024b Supported
Zvl2048b Supported
Zvl4096b Supported
Zvl8192b Supported
Zvl16384b Supported
Zvl32768b Supported
Zvl65536b Supported
Assembly Support
LLVM supports the associated instructions in assembly. All assembly related tools (e.g. assembler, disassembler, llvm-objdump, etc..) are supported. Compiler and linker will accept extension names, and linked binaries will contain appropriate ELF flags and attributes to reflect use of named extension.
Supported
Fully supported by the compiler. This includes everything in Assembly Support, along with - if relevant - C language intrinsics for the instructions and pattern matching by the compiler to recognize idiomatic patterns which can be lowered to the associated instructions.
Zbkb, Zbkx
Pattern matching support for these instructions is incomplete.
Zknd, Zkne, Zknh, Zksed, Zksh
No pattern matching exists. As a result, these instructions can only be used from assembler or via intrinsic calls.
Zve32x, Zve32f, Zvl32b
LLVM currently assumes a minimum VLEN (vector register width) of 64 bits during compilation, and as a result Zve32x and Zve32f are supported only for VLEN>=64. Assembly support doesn’t have this restriction.
zicsr, zifencei
Between versions 2.0 and 2.1 of the base I specification, a backwards incompatible change was made to remove selected instructions and CSRs from the base ISA. These instructions were grouped into a set of new extensions, but were no longer required by the base ISA. This change is described in “Preface to Document Version 20190608-Base-Ratified” from the specification document. LLVM currently implements version 2.0 of the base specification. Thus, instructions from these extensions are accepted as part of the base ISA. LLVM also allows the explicit specification of the extensions in an march string.

Experimental Extensions

LLVM supports (to various degrees) a number of experimental extensions. All experimental extensions have experimental- as a prefix. There is explicitly no compatibility promised between versions of the toolchain, and regular users are strongly advised not to make use of experimental extensions before they reach ratification.

The primary goal of experimental support is to assist in the process of ratification by providing an existence proof of an implementation, and simplifying efforts to validate the value of a proposed extension against large code bases. Experimental extensions are expected to either transition to ratified status, or be eventually removed. The decision on whether to accept an experimental extension is currently done on an entirely case by case basis; if you want to propose one, attending the bi-weekly RISC-V sync-up call is strongly advised.

experimental-zca
LLVM implements the 1.0.1 draft specification.
experimental-zcb
LLVM implements the 1.0.1 draft specification.
experimental-zcd
LLVM implements the 1.0.1 draft specification.
experimental-zcf
LLVM implements the 1.0.1 draft specification.
experimental-zfa
LLVM implements a subset of 0.1 draft specification (see Chapter 25). Load-immediate instructions (fli.s/fli.d/fli.h) haven’t been implemented yet.
experimental-zicond
LLVM implements the 1.0-rc1 draft specification <https://github.com/riscv/riscv-zicond/releases/tag/v1.0-rc1>_.
experimental-zihintntl
LLVM implements the 0.2 draft specification.
experimental-ztso
LLVM implements the v0.1 proposed specification (see Chapter 25). The mapping from the C/C++ memory model to Ztso has not yet been ratified in any standards document. There are multiple possible mappings, and they are not mutually ABI compatible. The mapping LLVM implements is ABI compatible with the default WMO mapping. This mapping may change and there is explicitly no ABI stability offered while the extension remains in experimental status. User beware.
experimental-zvfh
LLVM implements this draft text.
experimental-zvkb, experimental-zvkg, experimental-zvkn, experimental-zvknha, experimental-zvknhb, experimental-zvkns, experimental-zvks, experimental-zvksed, experimental-zvksh
LLVM implements the 0.3 draft specification. Note that current vector crypto extension version can be found in: <https://github.com/riscv/riscv-crypto>.

To use an experimental extension from clang, you must add -menable-experimental-extensions to the command line, and specify the exact version of the experimental extension you are using. To use an experimental extension with LLVM’s internal developer tools (e.g. llc, llvm-objdump, llvm-mc), you must prefix the extension name with experimental-. Note that you don’t need to specify the version with internal tools, and shouldn’t include the experimental- prefix with clang.

Vendor Extensions

Vendor extensions are extensions which are not standardized by RISC-V International, and are instead defined by a hardware vendor. The term vendor extension roughly parallels the definition of a non-standard extension from Section 1.3 of the Volume I: RISC-V Unprivileged ISA specification. In particular, we expect to eventually accept both custom extensions and non-conforming extensions.

Inclusion of a vendor extension will be considered on a case by case basis. All proposals should be brought to the bi-weekly RISCV sync calls for discussion. For a general idea of the factors likely to be considered, please see the Clang documentation.

It is our intention to follow the naming conventions described in riscv-non-isa/riscv-toolchain-conventions. Exceptions to this naming will need to be strongly motivated.

The current vendor extensions supported are:

XTHeadBa
LLVM implements the THeadBa (address-generation) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadBb
LLVM implements the THeadBb (basic bit-manipulation) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadBs
LLVM implements the THeadBs (single-bit operations) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadCondMov
LLVM implements the THeadCondMov (conditional move) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadCmo
LLVM implements the THeadCmo (cache management operations) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadFMemIdx
LLVM implements the THeadFMemIdx (indexed memory operations for floating point) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTheadMac
LLVM implements the XTheadMac (multiply-accumulate instructions) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadMemIdx
LLVM implements the THeadMemIdx (indexed memory operations) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadMemPair
LLVM implements the THeadMemPair (two-GPR memory operations) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadSync
LLVM implements the THeadSync (multi-core synchronization instructions) vendor-defined instructions specified in by T-HEAD of Alibaba. Instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification.
XTHeadVdot
LLVM implements version 1.0.0 of the THeadV-family custom instructions specification by T-HEAD of Alibaba. All instructions are prefixed with th. as described in the specification, and the riscv-toolchain-convention document linked above.
XVentanaCondOps
LLVM implements version 1.0.0 of the VTx-family custom instructions specification by Ventana Micro Systems. All instructions are prefixed with vt. as described in the specification, and the riscv-toolchain-convention document linked above. These instructions are only available for riscv64 at this time.

Specification Documents

For ratified specifications, please refer to the official RISC-V International page. Make sure to check the wiki for not yet integrated extensions.