This chapter documents the Backend for the PowerPC microprocessor family.

@section Legal

    This module is written in 2002-2016 by Frank Wille and
    is covered by the vasm copyright without modifications.


@section Additional options for this module

This module provides the following additional options:

@table @option

    @item -big
        Select big-endian mode.

    @item -little
        Select little-endian mode.

    @item -many
        Allow both, 32- and 64-bit instructions.

    @item -mavec, -maltivec
        Generate code for the Altivec unit.

    @item -mcom
        Allow only common PPC instructions.

    @item -m601
        Generate code for the PPC 601.

    @item -mppc32, -mppc, -m603, -m604
        Generate code for the 32-bit PowerPC 6xx family.

    @item -mppc64, -m620
        Generate code for the 64-bit PowerPC 600 family.

    @item -m7400, -m7410, -m7455
        Generate code for the 32-bit PowerPC 74xx (G4) family.

    @item -m7450
        Generate code for the 32-bit PowerPC 7450.

    @item -m403, -m405
        Generate code for the IBM/AMCC 32-bit embedded 40x family.

    @item -m440, -m460
        Generate code for the AMCC 32-bit embedded 440/460 family.

    @item -m821, -m850, -m860
        Generate code for the 32-bit MPC8xx PowerQUICC I family.

    @item -mbooke
        Generate code for the 32-bit Book-E architecture.

    @item -me300
        Generate code for the 32-bit e300 core (MPC51xx, MPC52xx, MPC83xx).

    @item -me500
        Generate code for the 32-bit e500 core (MPC85xx), including SPE,
        EFS and PMR.

    @item -mpwr
        Generate code for the POWER family.

    @item -mpwrx, -mpwr2
        Generate code for the POWER2 family.

    @item -no-regnames
        Don't predefine any register-name symbols.

    @item -opt-branch
        Enables translation of 16-bit branches into
        "B<!cc> $+8 ; B label" sequences when destination is out of range.

    @item -sd2reg=<n>
        Sets the 2nd small data base register to @code{Rn}.

    @item -sdreg=<n>
        Sets small data base register to @code{Rn}.

@end table
The default setting is to generate code for a 32-bit PPC G2, G3, G4 CPU
with Altivec support.

@section General

This backend accepts PowerPC instructions as described in the
instruction set manuals from IBM, Motorola, Freescale and AMCC.

The full instruction set of the following families is supported:
POWER, POWER2, 40x, 44x, 46x, 60x, 620, 750, 74xx, 860, Book-E,
e300 and e500.

The target address type is 32 or 64 bits, depending on the selected
CPU model.

Default alignment for sections and instructions is 4 bytes. Data is
aligned to its natural alignment by default.

@section Extensions

This backend provides the following specific extensions:

@itemize @minus

@item When not disabled by the option @code{-no-regnames}, the registers r0 - r31,
 f0 - f31, v0 - v31, cr0 - cr7, vrsave, sp, rtoc, fp, fpscr, xer, lr, ctr,
 and the symbols lt, gt, so and un will be predefined on startup and may
 be referenced by the program.

@end itemize

This backend extends the selected syntax module by the following
directives:

@table @code
@item .sdreg <n>
 Sets the small data base register to @code{Rn}.

@item .sd2reg <n>
 Sets the 2nd small data base register to @code{Rn}.

@end table


@section Optimizations

This backend performs the following optimizations:

@itemize @minus

@item 16-bit branches, where the destination is out of range, are translated
 into @code{B<!cc> $+8} and a 26-bit unconditional branch.

@end itemize

@section Known Problems

    Some known problems of this module at the moment:

@itemize @minus

@item No real differentiation between 403, 750, 860 instructions
      at the moment.
@item There may still be some unsupported PPC models.

@end itemize

@section Error Messages

This module has the following error messages:

@itemize @minus
@item 2002: instruction not supported on selected architecture
@item 2003: constant integer expression required
@item 2004: trailing garbage in operand
@item 2005: illegal operand type
@item 2006: missing closing parenthesis in load/store addressing mode
@item 2007: relocation does not allow hi/lo modifier
@item 2008: multiple relocation attributes
@item 2009: multiple hi/lo modifiers
@item 2010: data size %d not supported
@item 2011: data has illegal type
@item 2012: relocation attribute not supported by operand
@item 2013: operand out of range: %ld (allowed: %ld to %ld)
@item 2014: not a valid register (0-31)
@item 2015: missing base register in load/store addressing mode
@item 2016: missing mandatory operand
@item 2017: ignoring fake operand
@end itemize