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65816-llvm-mos/STATUS.md
Scott Duensing f80a49dc1e Checkpoint
2026-04-30 19:16:32 -05:00

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llvm816 — Current Status

LLVM/Clang backend for the WDC 65816 (Apple IIgs), forked from llvm-mos as a separate W65816 target.

What works

End-to-end C-to-binary toolchain that produces 65816 machine code which runs correctly under MAME (apple2gs).

Language coverage at -O2 (no extra flags):

  • All scalar arithmetic: i8 / i16 / i32 / i64 add, sub, mul, div, mod (signed and unsigned). Carry-chained multi-word ops via ADC/SBC pseudos
    • ASLA16 / shift libcalls.
  • Comparisons and signed/unsigned widening (sext, zext, trunc) for all the above sizes.
  • Pointer arithmetic, array indexing, struct field access, struct return-by-value (up to 8 bytes — Pair, Vec4, double).
  • Bitfields, switch statements (verified up to ~12 cases + default), function pointers, function-pointer tables, indirect calls via __jsl_indir trampoline.
  • Recursion: factorial, Fibonacci, depth-3 binary-tree insert/sum/min/max, simple recursive quicksort.
  • Loops with goto / break / continue, nested loops, state machines.
  • <stdarg.h> varargs with int / long / unsigned long long mixed args.
  • Heap: malloc / free (libc.c first-fit allocator) — linked-list reverse with cons works.
  • Strings: hand-rolled strlen, strcmp, strcpy, strchr, atoi/itoa roundtrip.
  • Soft-float (single): all four ops + comparisons, MAME-verified.
  • Soft-double: add, sub, mul, div all return correct bit patterns; 3-iter Newton sqrt converges. Long-running iterations may hit MAME's 1-second sim-time budget (test config issue, not a compiler bug).
  • Inline assembly with "a", "x", "y" register constraints and arbitrary opcode bytes (used for the pha;plb bank-switch idiom).
  • C++ minimal: clang++ compiles a class with virtual + non-trivial ctor (vtable + RTTI omitted; no exceptions).
  • printf with %d %x %s %c %p and width/precision specifiers.
  • setjmp / longjmp from libgcc.s.
  • Static constructors via crt0's init_array walk.

Toolchain:

  • clang / llc produce W65816 assembly + ELF object files.
  • tools/link816 resolves cross-translation-unit refs, lays out text/rodata/bss, emits a flat binary the IIgs ROM can load.
  • tools/omfEmit produces OMF v2.1 single-segment files (the IIgs's native object format) for round-tripping with classic dev tools.
  • runtime/build.sh builds crt0, libc, soft-float, soft-double, libgcc into linkable objects.
  • scripts/smokeTest.sh runs ~80 end-to-end checks (scalar ops, control flow, calling conventions, MAME execution, regressions). Currently 100% pass.

ABI:

  • arg0 in A; arg1 in X for i32-first-arg signatures; rest pushed RTL on the system stack with PHA. Caller deallocates via tsc;clc;adc #N;tcs or PLY*N/2.
  • Return: i8/i16 in A; i32 in A:X; i64 in A:X:Y plus DP[$F0..$F1] for the highest 16 bits.
  • Frame is empty-descending (S points to next-free); offsets account for the +1 skew vs LLVM's full-descending model.

In flight (build-system level)

  • DWARF sidecar — minimal version landed (#51): link816 --debug-out FILE collects every .debug_* section from the input objects and writes them to a sidecar with section headers. Addresses are still object-file-local (no relocation processing). A consumer that wants source-mapped final-image addresses must re-run reloc against the text/rodata bases, or use offsets within their object scope. Future work: apply text/rodata relocations to .debug_info / .debug_line so addresses match the final image, and emit a TOC the consumer can index by source file or function.

Known issues / workarounds

  • Greedy register allocator mis-orders spills in iterative quicksort with if/else recursion choice (#70). Complex live ranges across two swap() calls produce wrong pointer args. Reproduces only at -O1/-O2 with greedy. Workaround: -mllvm -regalloc=fast for the affected translation unit, or rewrite the qsort with explicit recursion guards instead of the iterative tail-elim form. softDouble.c already uses this flag for __muldf3 (build.sh applies it automatically). Real fix is either a pre-RA pass that explicitly spills loop-carried pointer args or a targeted greedy heuristic patch.

  • (d,s),y / (sr,s),y addressing wraps the bank when Y is negative as 16-bit unsigned. Worked around by W65816NegYIndY rewriting the affected ops to TAX ; LDA/STA $0000,X. Stays correct for negative offsets like arr[i-1].

  • (d,s),y for stack-local pointer dereferences uses DBR, so user code that switches DBR (e.g. pha;plb to bank 2 to reach IIgs hardware) must not call into a function that takes the address of one of its locals — the callee's *p = v will write to the wrong bank. Documented; no compiler-side mitigation beyond the existing DPF0 fake-physreg routing for the i64-return high half.

What's still needed for a "ship-ready" toolchain

  • Greedy regalloc spill-ordering fix — see above. Removes the need for the per-file -regalloc=fast workaround on softDouble.c and unblocks pattern-rich code that currently must be compiled at -O0 for correctness.

  • Round-to-nearest-even in __divdf3 — currently truncate-toward-zero, which differs from gcc by ±1 ULP in several test cases. Acceptable today (Newton iterations still converge); revisit when an exact-match test suite lands.

  • DWARF sidecar with relocations applied — current (#51) version is raw section pass-through; addresses are object-file-local. A real source-level debugger needs the linker to apply text/rodata relocations to .debug_info / .debug_line first.

  • More of the C standard library: <math.h> transcendental functions (sin, cos, exp, log, pow), <string.h> beyond what's hand-coded, <stdio.h> file I/O (fopen, fread, fwrite, fseek).

  • C++ runtime support: vtable layout for multiple inheritance, RTTI, exceptions (or a documented -fno-exceptions requirement).

  • REP/SEP scheduling pass (design doc §3.3): the current prologue picks one M-mode for the whole function based on whether any 8-bit accumulator value is used. A per-region scheduler would reduce the SEP/REP wrap overhead on i8 stores.

  • Toolbox / IIgs system call bindings: header files declaring the Apple IIgs system calls (SystemTask, WaitMouseUp, DrawString, …) with the right inline-asm dispatch glue.

  • Real-world program coverage: the smoke tests are microbenchmarks. A few known-good Apple IIgs C programs (e.g. a textfile pager, a small game) compiled and run end-to-end would catch issues no synthetic test currently exercises.

  • Cycle-time / size benchmarks vs Calypsi 5.16: design doc §1 says the goal is to "match or exceed" Calypsi. We have neither baseline numbers nor a comparison harness yet.