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27.\" $FreeBSD$
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29.Dd November 20, 2019
30.Dt ARCH 7
31.Os
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm arch
34.Nd Architecture-specific details
35.Sh DESCRIPTION
36Differences between CPU architectures and platforms supported by
37.Fx .
38.Ss Introduction
39This document is a quick reference of key ABI details of
40.Fx
41architecture ports.
42For full details consult the processor-specific ABI supplement
43documentation.
44.Pp
45If not explicitly mentioned, sizes are in bytes.
46The architecture details in this document apply to
47.Fx 11.0
48and later, unless otherwise noted.
49.Pp
50.Fx
51uses a flat address space.
52Variables of types
53.Vt unsigned long ,
54.Vt uintptr_t ,
55and
56.Vt size_t
57and pointers all have the same representation.
58.Pp
59In order to maximize compatibility with future pointer integrity mechanisms,
60manipulations of pointers as integers should be performed via
61.Vt uintptr_t
62or
63.Vt intptr_t
64and no other types.
65In particular,
66.Vt long
67and
68.Vt ptrdiff_t
69should be avoided.
70.Pp
71On some architectures, e.g.,
72.Dv sparc64 ,
73.Dv powerpc
74and AIM variants of
75.Dv powerpc64 ,
76the kernel uses a separate address space.
77On other architectures, kernel and a user mode process share a
78single address space.
79The kernel is located at the highest addresses.
80.Pp
81On each architecture, the main user mode thread's stack starts near
82the highest user address and grows down.
83.Pp
84.Fx
85architecture support varies by release.
86This table shows the first
87.Fx
88release to support each architecture, and, for discontinued
89architectures, the final release.
90.Pp
91.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Initial Release" "Sy Final Release"
92.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Initial Release Ta Sy Final Release
93.It aarch64     Ta 11.0
94.It alpha       Ta 3.2   Ta 6.4
95.It amd64       Ta 5.1
96.It arm         Ta 6.0   Ta 12.x
97.It armeb       Ta 8.0   Ta 11.x
98.It armv6       Ta 10.0
99.It armv7       Ta 12.0
100.It ia64        Ta 5.0   Ta 10.4
101.It i386        Ta 1.0
102.It mips        Ta 8.0
103.It mipsel      Ta 9.0
104.It mipselhf    Ta 12.0
105.It mipshf      Ta 12.0
106.It mipsn32     Ta 9.0
107.It mips64      Ta 9.0
108.It mips64el    Ta 9.0
109.It mips64elhf  Ta 12.0
110.It mips64hf    Ta 12.0
111.It pc98        Ta 2.2   Ta 11.x
112.It powerpc     Ta 6.0
113.It powerpcspe  Ta 12.0
114.It powerpc64   Ta 6.0
115.It riscv64     Ta 12.0
116.It riscv64sf   Ta 12.0
117.It sparc64     Ta 5.0   Ta 12.x
118.El
119.Ss Type sizes
120All
121.Fx
122architectures use some variant of the ELF (see
123.Xr elf 5 )
124.Sy Application Binary Interface
125(ABI) for the machine processor.
126All supported ABIs can be divided into two groups:
127.Bl -tag -width "Dv ILP32"
128.It Dv ILP32
129.Vt int ,
130.Vt long ,
131.Vt void *
132types machine representations all have 4-byte size.
133.It Dv LP64
134.Vt int
135type machine representation uses 4 bytes,
136while
137.Vt long
138and
139.Vt void *
140are 8 bytes.
141.El
142.Pp
143Compilers define the
144.Dv _LP64
145symbol when compiling for an
146.Dv LP64
147ABI.
148.Pp
149Some machines support more than one
150.Fx
151ABI.
152Typically these are 64-bit machines, where the
153.Dq native
154.Dv LP64
155execution environment is accompanied by the
156.Dq legacy
157.Dv ILP32
158environment, which was the historical 32-bit predecessor for 64-bit evolution.
159Examples are:
160.Bl -column -offset indent "Dv powerpc64" "Sy ILP32 counterpart"
161.It Sy LP64        Ta Sy ILP32 counterpart
162.It Dv amd64       Ta Dv i386
163.It Dv powerpc64   Ta Dv powerpc
164.It Dv mips64*     Ta Dv mips*
165.It Dv aarch64     Ta Dv armv6/armv7
166.El
167.Pp
168.Dv aarch64
169will support execution of
170.Dv armv6
171or
172.Dv armv7
173binaries if the CPU implements
174.Dv AArch32
175execution state, however
176.Dv armv5
177binaries aren't supported.
178.Pp
179On all supported architectures:
180.Bl -column -offset -indent "long long" "Size"
181.It Sy Type Ta Sy Size
182.It short Ta 2
183.It int Ta 4
184.It long Ta sizeof(void*)
185.It long long Ta 8
186.It float Ta 4
187.It double Ta 8
188.El
189.Pp
190Integers are represented in two's complement.
191Alignment of integer and pointer types is natural, that is,
192the address of the variable must be congruent to zero modulo the type size.
193Most ILP32 ABIs, except
194.Dv arm ,
195require only 4-byte alignment for 64-bit integers.
196.Pp
197Machine-dependent type sizes:
198.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy void *" "Sy long double" "Sy time_t"
199.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy void * Ta Sy long double Ta Sy time_t
200.It aarch64     Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
201.It amd64       Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
202.It arm         Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
203.It armv6       Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
204.It i386        Ta 4 Ta 12 Ta 4
205.It mips        Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
206.It mipsel      Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
207.It mipselhf    Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
208.It mipshf      Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
209.It mipsn32     Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
210.It mips64      Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
211.It mips64el    Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
212.It mips64elhf  Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
213.It mips64hf    Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
214.It powerpc     Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
215.It powerpcspe  Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
216.It powerpc64   Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
217.It riscv64     Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
218.It riscv64sf   Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
219.It sparc64     Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
220.El
221.Pp
222.Sy time_t
223is 8 bytes on all supported architectures except i386.
224.Ss Endianness and Char Signedness
225.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Endianness" "Sy char Signedness"
226.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Endianness Ta Sy char Signedness
227.It aarch64     Ta little Ta unsigned
228.It amd64       Ta little Ta   signed
229.It arm         Ta little Ta unsigned
230.It armv6       Ta little Ta unsigned
231.It armv7       Ta little Ta unsigned
232.It i386        Ta little Ta   signed
233.It mips        Ta big    Ta   signed
234.It mipsel      Ta little Ta   signed
235.It mipselhf    Ta little Ta   signed
236.It mipshf      Ta big    Ta   signed
237.It mipsn32     Ta big    Ta   signed
238.It mips64      Ta big    Ta   signed
239.It mips64el    Ta little Ta   signed
240.It mips64elhf  Ta little Ta   signed
241.It mips64hf    Ta big    Ta   signed
242.It powerpc     Ta big    Ta unsigned
243.It powerpcspe  Ta big    Ta unsigned
244.It powerpc64   Ta big    Ta unsigned
245.It riscv64     Ta little Ta   signed
246.It riscv64sf   Ta little Ta   signed
247.It sparc64     Ta big    Ta   signed
248.El
249.Ss Page Size
250.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Page Sizes"
251.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Page Sizes
252.It aarch64     Ta 4K, 2M, 1G
253.It amd64       Ta 4K, 2M, 1G
254.It arm         Ta 4K
255.It armv6       Ta 4K, 1M
256.It armv7       Ta 4K, 1M
257.It i386        Ta 4K, 2M (PAE), 4M
258.It mips        Ta 4K
259.It mipsel      Ta 4K
260.It mipselhf    Ta 4K
261.It mipshf      Ta 4K
262.It mipsn32     Ta 4K
263.It mips64      Ta 4K
264.It mips64el    Ta 4K
265.It mips64elhf  Ta 4K
266.It mips64hf    Ta 4K
267.It powerpc     Ta 4K
268.It powerpcspe  Ta 4K
269.It powerpc64   Ta 4K
270.It riscv64     Ta 4K
271.It riscv64sf   Ta 4K
272.It sparc64     Ta 8K
273.El
274.Ss Floating Point
275.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy float, double" "Sy long double"
276.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy float, double Ta Sy long double
277.It aarch64     Ta hard Ta soft, quad precision
278.It amd64       Ta hard Ta hard, 80 bit
279.It arm         Ta soft Ta soft, double precision
280.It armv6       Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
281.It armv7       Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
282.It i386        Ta hard Ta hard, 80 bit
283.It mips        Ta soft Ta identical to double
284.It mipsel      Ta soft Ta identical to double
285.It mipselhf    Ta hard Ta identical to double
286.It mipshf      Ta hard Ta identical to double
287.It mipsn32     Ta soft Ta identical to double
288.It mips64      Ta soft Ta identical to double
289.It mips64el    Ta soft Ta identical to double
290.It mips64elhf  Ta hard Ta identical to double
291.It mips64hf    Ta hard Ta identical to double
292.It powerpc     Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
293.It powerpcspe  Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
294.It powerpc64   Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
295.It riscv64     Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
296.It riscv64sf   Ta soft Ta soft, double precision
297.It sparc64     Ta hard Ta hard, quad precision
298.El
299.Ss Default Tool Chain
300.Fx uses a variety of tool chain components for the supported CPU
301architectures:
302.Xr clang 1
303and
304.Xr ld.lld 1
305provided by the base system,
306GNU
307.Xr gcc 1
308and Binutils
309.Xr ld 1 ,
310or an external toolchain compiler and linker provided by a port or package.
311This table shows the default tool chain for each architecture.
312.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Compiler" "Sy Linker"
313.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Compiler Ta Sy Linker
314.It aarch64     Ta Clang     Ta lld
315.It amd64       Ta Clang     Ta lld
316.It arm         Ta Clang     Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
317.It armv6       Ta Clang     Ta lld
318.It armv7       Ta Clang     Ta lld
319.It i386        Ta Clang     Ta lld
320.It mips        Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
321.It mipsel      Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
322.It mipselhf    Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
323.It mipshf      Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
324.It mipsn32     Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
325.It mips64      Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
326.It mips64el    Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
327.It mips64elhf  Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
328.It mips64hf    Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
329.It powerpc     Ta Clang     Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
330.It powerpcspe  Ta Clang     Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
331.It powerpc64   Ta Clang     Ta lld
332.It riscv64     Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
333.It riscv64sf   Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
334.It sparc64     Ta GCC 4.2.1 Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
335.El
336.Pp
337(1) External toolchain provided by ports/packages.
338.Pp
339Note that GCC 4.2.1 is deprecated, and scheduled for removal on 2020-03-31.
340Any CPU architectures not migrated by then
341(to either base system Clang or external toolchain)
342may be removed from the tree after that date.
343Unless the make variable
344.Dv MAKE_OBSOLETE_GCC
345is defined, make universe will not build mips or sparc64
346architectures unless the xtoolchain binaries have been installed for
347the architecture.
348.Ss MACHINE_ARCH vs MACHINE_CPUARCH vs MACHINE
349.Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH
350should be preferred in Makefiles when the generic
351architecture is being tested.
352.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
353should be preferred when there is something specific to a particular type of
354architecture where there is a choice of many, or could be a choice of many.
355Use
356.Dv MACHINE
357when referring to the kernel, interfaces dependent on a specific type of kernel
358or similar things like boot sequences.
359.Bl -column -offset indent "Dv MACHINE" "Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH" "Dv MACHINE_ARCH"
360.It Dv MACHINE Ta Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH Ta Dv MACHINE_ARCH
361.It arm64 Ta aarch64 Ta aarch64
362.It amd64 Ta amd64 Ta amd64
363.It arm Ta arm Ta arm, armv6, armv7
364.It i386 Ta i386 Ta i386
365.It mips Ta mips Ta mips, mipsel, mips64, mips64el, mipshf, mipselhf, mips64elhf, mipsn32
366.It powerpc Ta powerpc Ta powerpc, powerpcspe, powerpc64
367.It riscv Ta riscv Ta riscv64, riscv64sf
368.It sparc64 Ta sparc64 Ta sparc64
369.El
370.Ss Predefined Macros
371The compiler provides a number of predefined macros.
372Some of these provide architecture-specific details and are explained below.
373Other macros, including those required by the language standard, are not
374included here.
375.Pp
376The full set of predefined macros can be obtained with this command:
377.Bd -literal -offset indent
378cc -x c -dM -E /dev/null
379.Ed
380.Pp
381Common type size and endianness macros:
382.Bl -column -offset indent "BYTE_ORDER" "Sy Meaning"
383.It Sy Macro Ta Sy Meaning
384.It Dv __LP64__ Ta 64-bit (8-byte) long and pointer, 32-bit (4-byte) int
385.It Dv __ILP32__ Ta 32-bit (4-byte) int, long and pointer
386.It Dv BYTE_ORDER Ta Either Dv BIG_ENDIAN or Dv LITTLE_ENDIAN .
387.Dv PDP11_ENDIAN
388is not used on
389.Fx .
390.El
391.Pp
392Architecture-specific macros:
393.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Predefined macros"
394.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Predefined macros
395.It aarch64     Ta Dv __aarch64__
396.It amd64       Ta Dv __amd64__, Dv __x86_64__
397.It arm         Ta Dv __arm__
398.It armv6       Ta Dv __arm__, Dv __ARM_ARCH >= 6
399.It armv7       Ta Dv __arm__, Dv __ARM_ARCH >= 7
400.It i386        Ta Dv __i386__
401.It mips        Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_o32
402.It mipsel      Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __mips_o32
403.It mipselhf    Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __mips_o32
404.It mipshf      Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_o32
405.It mipsn32     Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_n32
406.It mips64      Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_n64
407.It mips64el    Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __mips_n64
408.It mips64elhf  Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __mips_n64
409.It mips64hf    Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_n64
410.It powerpc     Ta Dv __powerpc__
411.It powerpcspe  Ta Dv __powerpc__, Dv __SPE__
412.It powerpc64   Ta Dv __powerpc__, Dv __powerpc64__
413.It riscv64     Ta Dv __riscv, Dv __riscv_xlen == 64
414.It riscv64sf   Ta Dv __riscv, Dv __riscv_xlen == 64
415.It sparc64     Ta Dv __sparc64__
416.El
417.Pp
418Compilers may define additional variants of architecture-specific macros.
419The macros above are preferred for use in
420.Fx .
421.Ss Important Xr make 1 variables
422Most of the externally settable variables are defined in the
423.Xr build 7
424man page.
425These variables are not otherwise documented and are used extensively
426in the build system.
427.Bl -tag -width "MACHINE_CPUARCH"
428.It Dv MACHINE
429Represent the hardware platform.
430This is the same as the native platform's
431.Xr uname 1
432.Fl m
433output.
434It defines both the userland / kernel interface, as well as the
435bootloader / kernel interface.
436It should only be used in these contexts.
437Each CPU architecture may have multiple hardware platforms it supports
438where
439.Dv MACHINE
440differs among them.
441It is used to collect together all the files from
442.Xr config 8
443to build the kernel.
444It is often the same as
445.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
446just as one CPU architecture can be implemented by many different
447hardware platforms, one hardware platform may support multiple CPU
448architecture family members, though with different binaries.
449For example,
450.Dv MACHINE
451of i386 supported the IBM-AT hardware platform while the
452.Dv MACHINE
453of pc98 supported the Japanese company NEC's PC-9801 and PC-9821
454hardware platforms.
455Both of these hardware platforms supported only the
456.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
457of i386 where they shared a common ABI, except for certain kernel /
458userland interfaces relating to underlying hardware platform
459differences in bus architecture, device enumeration and boot interface.
460Generally,
461.Dv MACHINE
462should only be used in src/sys and src/stand or in system imagers or
463installers.
464.It Dv MACHINE_ARCH
465Represents the CPU processor architecture.
466This is the same as the native platforms
467.Xr uname 1
468.Fl p
469output.
470It defines the CPU instruction family supported.
471It may also encode a variation in the byte ordering of multi-byte
472integers (endian).
473It may also encode a variation in the size of the integer or pointer.
474It may also encode a ISA revision.
475It may also encode hard versus soft floating point ABI and usage.
476It may also encode a variant ABI when the other factors do not
477uniquely define the ABI (e.g., MIPS' n32 ABI).
478It, along with
479.Dv MACHINE ,
480defines the ABI used by the system.
481For example, the MIPS CPU processor family supports 9 different
482combinations encoding pointer size, endian and hard versus soft float (for
4838 combinations) as well as N32 (which only ever had one variation of
484all these).
485Generally, the plain CPU name specifies the most common (or at least
486first) variant of the CPU.
487This is why mips and mips64 imply 'big endian' while 'arm' and 'armv7'
488imply little endian.
489If we ever were to support the so-called x32 ABI (using 32-bit
490pointers on the amd64 architecture), it would most likely be encoded
491as amd64-x32.
492It is unfortunate that amd64 specifies the 64-bit evolution of the x86
493platform (it matches the 'first rule') as everybody else uses x86_64.
494There is no standard name for the processor: each OS selects its own
495conventions.
496.It Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH
497Represents the source location for a given
498.Dv MACHINE_ARCH .
499It is generally the common prefix for all the MACHINE_ARCH that
500share the same implementation, though 'riscv' breaks this rule.
501For example,
502.Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH
503is defined to be mips for all the flavors of mips that we support
504since we support them all with a shared set of sources.
505While amd64 and i386 are closely related, MACHINE_CPUARCH is not x86
506for them.
507The FreeBSD source base supports amd64 and i386 with two
508distinct source bases living in subdirectories named amd64 and i386
509(though behind the scenes there's some sharing that fits into this
510framework).
511.It Dv CPUTYPE
512Sets the flavor of
513.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
514to build.
515It is used to optimize the build for a specific CPU / core that the
516binaries run on.
517Generally, this does not change the ABI, though it can be a fine line
518between optimization for specific cases.
519.It Dv TARGET
520Used to set
521.Dv MACHINE
522in the top level Makefile for cross building.
523Unused outside of that scope.
524It is not passed down to the rest of the build.
525Makefiles outside of the top level should not use it at all (though
526some have their own private copy for hysterical raisons).
527.It Dv TARGET_ARCH
528Used to set
529.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
530by the top level Makefile for cross building.
531Like
532.Dv TARGET ,
533it is unused outside of that scope.
534.El
535.Sh SEE ALSO
536.Xr src.conf 5 ,
537.Xr build 7
538.Sh HISTORY
539An
540.Nm
541manual page appeared in
542.Fx 11.1 .
543