How to assemble ARM SVE instructions with GNU GAS

I want to play with the new ARM SVE instructions using open source tools.

As a start, I would like to assemble the minimal example present at: https://developer.arm.com/docs/dui0965/latest/getting-started-with-the-sve-compiler/assembling-sve-code

// example1.s
    .global main
main:
    mov     x0, 0x90000000
    mov     x8, xzr
    ptrue   p0.s                        //SVE instruction
    fcpy    z0.s, p0/m, #5.00000000     //SVE instruction
    orr     w10, wzr, #0x400
loop:
    st1w    z0.s, p0, [x0, x8, lsl #2]  //SVE instruction
    incw    x8                          //SVE instruction
    whilelt p0.s, x8, x10               //SVE instruction
    b.any   loop                        //SVE instruction
    mov     w0, wzr
    ret

However, when I try that on my Ubuntu 16.04:

sudo apt-get install binutils-aarch64-linux-gnu
aarch64-linux-gnu-as example1.S

it does not recognize any of the SVE assembly instructions, e.g.:

example1.S:6: Error: unknown mnemonic `ptrue' -- `ptrue p0.s'

I think this is because my GNU AS 2.26.1 is too old and does not have SVE support yet.

I'm also fine using LLVM or any other open source assembler.

Once I manage to assemble, I then want to run it on QEMU user mode since 3.0.0 has SVE support.

Automated example with an assertion

usage
source

Below I described how that example was achieved.

Assembly

The aarch64-linux-gnu-as 2.30 in Ubuntu 18.04 is already new enough for SVE as can be seen from: https://sourceware.org/binutils/docs-2.30/as/AArch64-Extensions.html#AArch64-Extensions

Otherwise, compiling Binutils from source is easy on Ubuntu 16.04, just do:

git clone git://sourceware.org/git/binutils-gdb.git
cd binutils-gdb
# master that I tested with.
git checkout 4de5434b694fc260d02610e8e7fec21b2923600a
./configure --target aarch64-elf --prefix "$(pwd)/ble"
make -j `nproc`
make install

I didn't check out to a tag because the last tag is a few months old, and I don't feel like grepping log messages for when SVE was introduced ;-)

Then use the compiled as and link with the packaged GCC on Ubuntu 16.04:

./binutils-gdb/ble/bin/aarch64-elf-as -c -march=armv8.5-a+sve \
    -o example1.o example1.S
aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc -march=armv8.5-a -nostdlib -o example1 example1.o

On Ubuntu 16.04, aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc 5.4 does not have -march=armv8.5-a, so just use -march=armv8-a and it should be fine. In any case, neither Ubuntu 16.04 nor 18.04 has -march=armv8-a+sve which will be the best option when it arrives.

Alternatively, instead of passing -march=armv8.5-a+sve, you can also add the following to the start of the .S source code:

.arch armv8.5-a+sve

On Ubuntu 19.04 Binutils 2.32, I also learnt about and tested:

aarch64-linux-gnu-as -march=all

which also works for SVE, I think I'll be using more of that in the future, as it seems to just enable all features in one go, not just SVE!

QEMU simulation

The procedure to step debug it on QEMU is explained at: How to single step ARM assembly in GDB on QEMU?

First I made the example into a minimal self contained Linux executable:

.data
    x: .double        1.5,  2.5,  3.5,  4.5
    y: .double        5.0,  6.0,  7.0,  8.0
    y_expect: .double 8.0, 11.0, 14.0, 17.0
    a: .double        2.0
    n: .word          4

.text
.global _start
_start:
    ldr x0, =x
    ldr x1, =y
    ldr x2, =a
    ldr x3, =n
    bl daxpy

    /* exit */
    mov x0, #0
    mov x8, #93
    svc #0


/* Multiply by a scalar and add.
 *
 * Operation:
 *
 *      Y += a * X
 *
 * C signature:
 *
 *      void daxpy(double *x, double *y, double *a, int *n)
 *
 * The name "daxpy" comes from LAPACK:
 * http://www.netlib.org/lapack/explore-html/de/da4/group__double__blas__level1_ga8f99d6a644d3396aa32db472e0cfc91c.html
 *
 * Adapted from: https://alastairreid.github.io/papers/sve-ieee-micro-2017.pdf
 */
daxpy:
    ldrsw x3, [x3]
    mov x4, #0
    whilelt p0.d, x4, x3
    ld1rd z0.d, p0/z, [x2]
.loop:
    ld1d z1.d, p0/z, [x0, x4, lsl #3]
    ld1d z2.d, p0/z, [x1, x4, lsl #3]
    fmla z2.d, p0/m, z1.d, z0.d
    st1d z2.d, p0, [x1, x4, lsl #3]
    incd x4
    whilelt p0.d, x4, x3
    b.first .loop
    ret

You can run it with:

qemu-aarch64 -L /usr/aarch64-linux-gnu -E LD_BIND_NOW=1 ./example1

then it exits nicely.

Next, we can step debug to confirm that the sum was actually made:

qemu-aarch64 -g 1234 -L /usr/aarch64-linux-gnu -E LD_BIND_NOW=1 ./example1

and:

./binutils-gdb/ble/bin/aarch64-elf-gdb -ex 'file example1' \
  -ex 'target remote localhost:1234' -ex 'set sysroot /usr/aarch64-linux-gnu'

Now, step up to right after bl daxpy, and run:

>>> p (double[4])y_expect
$1 = {[0] = 8, [1] = 11, [2] = 14, [3] = 17}
>>> p (double[4])y
$2 = {[0] = 8, [1] = 11, [2] = 14, [3] = 17}

which confirms that the sum was actually done as expected.

Observing SVE registers seems unimplemented as I can't find anything under: https://github.com/qemu/qemu/tree/v3.0.0/gdb-xml but it should not be too hard to implement by copying other FP registers? Asked at: http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-discuss/2018-10/msg00020.html

You can currently already observe it partially and indirectly by doing: