Re: [patch 4/7] Immediate Values - i386 Optimization

["H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>]

Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote:
> Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> 
>> +#define immediate_read(name)						\
>> +	({								\
>> +		__typeof__(name##__immediate) value;			\
>> +		switch (sizeof(value)) {				\
>> +		case 1:							\
>> +			asm (	".section __immediate, \"a\", @progbits;\n\t" \
>> +					".long %1, (0f)+1, 1;\n\t"	\
>> +					".previous;\n\t"		\
>> +					"0:\n\t"			\
>> +					"mov %2,%0;\n\t"		\
> 
> Given that you're relying on the exact instruction that this mov
> generates, it might be better to explicitly put the opcodes in with
> .byte.  That way you're protected from the assembler deciding to
> generate some other form of the instruction (for whatever reason).  I
> guess substituting in different registers would be a pain.

Allowing different registers should be doable, but if so, one would have
to put 0: at the *end* of the instruction and use (0f)-4 instead, since
the non-%eax forms are one byte longer.

This also seems "safer", since an imm32 is always the last thing in the
instruction.

	-hpa