as: Xtensa Automatic Alignment
9.54.3.2 Automatic Instruction Alignment
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The Xtensa assembler will automatically align certain instructions, both
to optimize performance and to satisfy architectural requirements.
As an optimization to improve performance, the assembler attempts to
align branch targets so they do not cross instruction fetch boundaries.
(Xtensa processors can be configured with either 32-bit or 64-bit
instruction fetch widths.) An instruction immediately following a call
is treated as a branch target in this context, because it will be the
target of a return from the call. This alignment has the potential to
reduce branch penalties at some expense in code size. This optimization
is enabled by default. You can disable it with the '--no-target-align'
command-line option (
Command-line Options Xtensa Options.).
The target alignment optimization is done without adding instructions
that could increase the execution time of the program. If there are
density instructions in the code preceding a target, the assembler can
change the target alignment by widening some of those instructions to
the equivalent 24-bit instructions. Extra bytes of padding can be
inserted immediately following unconditional jump and return
instructions. This approach is usually successful in aligning many, but
not all, branch targets.
The 'LOOP' family of instructions must be aligned such that the first
instruction in the loop body does not cross an instruction fetch
boundary (e.g., with a 32-bit fetch width, a 'LOOP' instruction must be
on either a 1 or 2 mod 4 byte boundary). The assembler knows about this
restriction and inserts the minimal number of 2 or 3 byte no-op
instructions to satisfy it. When no-op instructions are added, any
label immediately preceding the original loop will be moved in order to
refer to the loop instruction, not the newly generated no-op
instruction. To preserve binary compatibility across processors with
different fetch widths, the assembler conservatively assumes a 32-bit
fetch width when aligning 'LOOP' instructions (except if the first
instruction in the loop is a 64-bit instruction).
Previous versions of the assembler automatically aligned 'ENTRY'
instructions to 4-byte boundaries, but that alignment is now the
programmer's responsibility.
Info Catalog
as: Density Instructions
as: Xtensa Optimizations