Architecture & Platform Information for Compiler Writers

Note

This document is a work-in-progress. Additions and clarifications are welcome.

Hardware

AArch64 & ARM

• ARMv8-A Architecture Reference Manual (authentication required, free sign-up). This document covers both AArch64 and ARM instructions
• ARMv7-M Architecture Reference Manual (authentication required, free sign-up). This covers the Thumb2-only microcontrollers
• ARMv6-M Architecture Reference Manual (authentication required, free sign-up). This covers the Thumb1-only microcontrollers
• ARM C Language Extensions
• AArch32 ABI Addenda and Errata

Itanium (ia64)

• Itanium documentation

Lanai

• Lanai Instruction Set Architecture

MIPS

• MIPS Processor Architecture
• MIPS 64-bit ELF Object File Specification

PowerPC

IBM - Official manuals and docs

• Power Instruction Set Architecture, Versions 2.03 through 2.06 (authentication required, free sign-up)
• PowerPC Compiler Writer’s Guide
• Intro to PowerPC Architecture
• PowerPC Processor Manuals (embedded)
• Various IBM specifications and white papers
• IBM AIX/5L for POWER Assembly Reference

Other documents, collections, notes

• PowerPC ABI documents
• PowerPC64 alignment of long doubles (from GCC)
• Long branch stubs for powerpc64-linux (from binutils)

AMDGPU

• AMD R6xx shader ISA
• AMD R7xx shader ISA
• AMD Evergreen shader ISA
• AMD Cayman/Trinity shader ISA
• AMD Southern Islands Series ISA
• AMD Sea Islands Series ISA
• AMD GCN3 Instruction Set Architecture
• AMD GPU Programming Guide
• AMD Compute Resources
• AMDGPU Compute Application Binary Interface

RISC-V

• RISC-V User-Level ISA Specification

SPARC

• SPARC standards
• SPARC V9 ABI
• SPARC V8 ABI

SystemZ

• z/Architecture Principles of Operation (registration required, free sign-up)

X86

• AMD processor manuals
• Intel 64 and IA-32 manuals
• Intel Itanium documentation
• X86 and X86-64 SysV psABI
• Calling conventions for different C++ compilers and operating systems

XCore

• The XMOS XS1 Architecture (ISA)
• Tools Development Guide (includes ABI)

Hexagon

• Hexagon Programmer’s Reference Manuals and Hexagon ABI Specification (registration required, free sign-up)

Other relevant lists

• GCC reading list

ABI

• System V Application Binary Interface
• Itanium C++ ABI

Linux

• Linux extensions to gabi
• PowerPC 64-bit ELF ABI Supplement
• Procedure Call Standard for the AArch64 Architecture
• ELF for the ARM Architecture
• ELF for the ARM 64-bit Architecture (AArch64)
• System z ELF ABI Supplement

OS X

• Mach-O Runtime Architecture
• Notes on Mach-O ABI

Windows

• Microsoft PE/COFF Specification

NVPTX

• CUDA Documentation includes the PTX ISA and Driver API documentation

Miscellaneous Resources

• Executable File Format library
• GCC prefetch project page has a good survey of the prefetching capabilities of a variety of modern processors.