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27.\" $FreeBSD$
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29.Dd January 8, 2020
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
143Some machines support more than one
144.Fx
145ABI.
146Typically these are 64-bit machines, where the
147.Dq native
148.Dv LP64
149execution environment is accompanied by the
150.Dq legacy
151.Dv ILP32
152environment, which was the historical 32-bit predecessor for 64-bit evolution.
153Examples are:
154.Bl -column -offset indent "Dv powerpc64" "Sy ILP32 counterpart"
155.It Sy LP64        Ta Sy ILP32 counterpart
156.It Dv amd64       Ta Dv i386
157.It Dv powerpc64   Ta Dv powerpc
158.It Dv mips64*     Ta Dv mips*
159.It Dv aarch64     Ta Dv armv6/armv7
160.El
161.Pp
162.Dv aarch64
163will support execution of
164.Dv armv6
165or
166.Dv armv7
167binaries if the CPU implements
168.Dv AArch32
169execution state, however
170.Dv armv5
171binaries aren't supported.
172.Pp
173On all supported architectures:
174.Bl -column -offset -indent "long long" "Size"
175.It Sy Type Ta Sy Size
176.It short Ta 2
177.It int Ta 4
178.It long Ta sizeof(void*)
179.It long long Ta 8
180.It float Ta 4
181.It double Ta 8
182.El
183.Pp
184Integers are represented in two's complement.
185Alignment of integer and pointer types is natural, that is,
186the address of the variable must be congruent to zero modulo the type size.
187Most ILP32 ABIs, except
188.Dv arm ,
189require only 4-byte alignment for 64-bit integers.
190.Pp
191Machine-dependent type sizes:
192.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy void *" "Sy long double" "Sy time_t"
193.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy void * Ta Sy long double Ta Sy time_t
194.It aarch64     Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
195.It amd64       Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
196.It armv6       Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
197.It armv7       Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
198.It i386        Ta 4 Ta 12 Ta 4
199.It mips        Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
200.It mipsel      Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
201.It mipselhf    Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
202.It mipshf      Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
203.It mipsn32     Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
204.It mips64      Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
205.It mips64el    Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
206.It mips64elhf  Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
207.It mips64hf    Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
208.It powerpc     Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
209.It powerpcspe  Ta 4 Ta  8 Ta 8
210.It powerpc64   Ta 8 Ta  8 Ta 8
211.It riscv64     Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
212.It riscv64sf   Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
213.It sparc64     Ta 8 Ta 16 Ta 8
214.El
215.Pp
216.Sy time_t
217is 8 bytes on all supported architectures except i386.
218.Ss Endianness and Char Signedness
219.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Endianness" "Sy char Signedness"
220.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Endianness Ta Sy char Signedness
221.It aarch64     Ta little Ta unsigned
222.It amd64       Ta little Ta   signed
223.It armv6       Ta little Ta unsigned
224.It armv7       Ta little Ta unsigned
225.It i386        Ta little Ta   signed
226.It mips        Ta big    Ta   signed
227.It mipsel      Ta little Ta   signed
228.It mipselhf    Ta little Ta   signed
229.It mipshf      Ta big    Ta   signed
230.It mipsn32     Ta big    Ta   signed
231.It mips64      Ta big    Ta   signed
232.It mips64el    Ta little Ta   signed
233.It mips64elhf  Ta little Ta   signed
234.It mips64hf    Ta big    Ta   signed
235.It powerpc     Ta big    Ta unsigned
236.It powerpcspe  Ta big    Ta unsigned
237.It powerpc64   Ta big    Ta unsigned
238.It riscv64     Ta little Ta   signed
239.It riscv64sf   Ta little Ta   signed
240.It sparc64     Ta big    Ta   signed
241.El
242.Ss Page Size
243.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Page Sizes"
244.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Page Sizes
245.It aarch64     Ta 4K, 2M, 1G
246.It amd64       Ta 4K, 2M, 1G
247.It armv6       Ta 4K, 1M
248.It armv7       Ta 4K, 1M
249.It i386        Ta 4K, 2M (PAE), 4M
250.It mips        Ta 4K
251.It mipsel      Ta 4K
252.It mipselhf    Ta 4K
253.It mipshf      Ta 4K
254.It mipsn32     Ta 4K
255.It mips64      Ta 4K
256.It mips64el    Ta 4K
257.It mips64elhf  Ta 4K
258.It mips64hf    Ta 4K
259.It powerpc     Ta 4K
260.It powerpcspe  Ta 4K
261.It powerpc64   Ta 4K
262.It riscv64     Ta 4K
263.It riscv64sf   Ta 4K
264.It sparc64     Ta 8K
265.El
266.Ss Floating Point
267.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy float, double" "Sy long double"
268.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy float, double Ta Sy long double
269.It aarch64     Ta hard Ta soft, quad precision
270.It amd64       Ta hard Ta hard, 80 bit
271.It armv6       Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
272.It armv7       Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
273.It i386        Ta hard Ta hard, 80 bit
274.It mips        Ta soft Ta identical to double
275.It mipsel      Ta soft Ta identical to double
276.It mipselhf    Ta hard Ta identical to double
277.It mipshf      Ta hard Ta identical to double
278.It mipsn32     Ta soft Ta identical to double
279.It mips64      Ta soft Ta identical to double
280.It mips64el    Ta soft Ta identical to double
281.It mips64elhf  Ta hard Ta identical to double
282.It mips64hf    Ta hard Ta identical to double
283.It powerpc     Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
284.It powerpcspe  Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
285.It powerpc64   Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
286.It riscv64     Ta hard Ta hard, double precision
287.It riscv64sf   Ta soft Ta soft, double precision
288.It sparc64     Ta hard Ta hard, quad precision
289.El
290.Ss Default Tool Chain
291.Fx uses a variety of tool chain components for the supported CPU
292architectures:
293.Xr clang 1
294and
295.Xr ld.lld 1
296provided by the base system,
297GNU
298.Xr gcc 1
299and Binutils
300.Xr ld 1 ,
301or an external toolchain compiler and linker provided by a port or package.
302This table shows the default tool chain for each architecture.
303.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Compiler" "Sy Linker"
304.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Compiler Ta Sy Linker
305.It aarch64     Ta Clang     Ta lld
306.It amd64       Ta Clang     Ta lld
307.It armv6       Ta Clang     Ta lld
308.It armv7       Ta Clang     Ta lld
309.It i386        Ta Clang     Ta lld
310.It mips        Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
311.It mipsel      Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
312.It mipselhf    Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
313.It mipshf      Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
314.It mipsn32     Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
315.It mips64      Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
316.It mips64el    Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
317.It mips64elhf  Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
318.It mips64hf    Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
319.It powerpc     Ta Clang     Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
320.It powerpcspe  Ta Clang     Ta GNU ld 2.17.50
321.It powerpc64   Ta Clang     Ta lld
322.It riscv64     Ta Clang     Ta lld
323.It riscv64sf   Ta Clang     Ta lld
324.It sparc64     Ta GCC(1)    Ta GNU ld(1)
325.El
326.Pp
327(1) External toolchain provided by ports/packages.
328.Pp
329Note that GCC 4.2.1 is deprecated, and scheduled for removal on 2020-03-31.
330Any CPU architectures not migrated by then
331(to either base system Clang or external toolchain)
332may be removed from the tree after that date.
333make universe will not build mips or sparc64
334architectures unless the xtoolchain binaries have been installed for
335the architecture.
336.Ss MACHINE_ARCH vs MACHINE_CPUARCH vs MACHINE
337.Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH
338should be preferred in Makefiles when the generic
339architecture is being tested.
340.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
341should be preferred when there is something specific to a particular type of
342architecture where there is a choice of many, or could be a choice of many.
343Use
344.Dv MACHINE
345when referring to the kernel, interfaces dependent on a specific type of kernel
346or similar things like boot sequences.
347.Bl -column -offset indent "Dv MACHINE" "Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH" "Dv MACHINE_ARCH"
348.It Dv MACHINE Ta Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH Ta Dv MACHINE_ARCH
349.It arm64 Ta aarch64 Ta aarch64
350.It amd64 Ta amd64 Ta amd64
351.It arm Ta arm Ta armv6, armv7
352.It i386 Ta i386 Ta i386
353.It mips Ta mips Ta mips, mipsel, mips64, mips64el, mipshf, mipselhf, mips64elhf, mipsn32
354.It powerpc Ta powerpc Ta powerpc, powerpcspe, powerpc64
355.It riscv Ta riscv Ta riscv64, riscv64sf
356.It sparc64 Ta sparc64 Ta sparc64
357.El
358.Ss Predefined Macros
359The compiler provides a number of predefined macros.
360Some of these provide architecture-specific details and are explained below.
361Other macros, including those required by the language standard, are not
362included here.
363.Pp
364The full set of predefined macros can be obtained with this command:
365.Bd -literal -offset indent
366cc -x c -dM -E /dev/null
367.Ed
368.Pp
369Common type size and endianness macros:
370.Bl -column -offset indent "BYTE_ORDER" "Sy Meaning"
371.It Sy Macro Ta Sy Meaning
372.It Dv __LP64__ Ta 64-bit (8-byte) long and pointer, 32-bit (4-byte) int
373.It Dv __ILP32__ Ta 32-bit (4-byte) int, long and pointer
374.It Dv BYTE_ORDER Ta Either Dv BIG_ENDIAN or Dv LITTLE_ENDIAN .
375.Dv PDP11_ENDIAN
376is not used on
377.Fx .
378.El
379.Pp
380Architecture-specific macros:
381.Bl -column -offset indent "Sy Architecture" "Sy Predefined macros"
382.It Sy Architecture Ta Sy Predefined macros
383.It aarch64     Ta Dv __aarch64__
384.It amd64       Ta Dv __amd64__, Dv __x86_64__
385.It armv6       Ta Dv __arm__, Dv __ARM_ARCH >= 6
386.It armv7       Ta Dv __arm__, Dv __ARM_ARCH >= 7
387.It i386        Ta Dv __i386__
388.It mips        Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_o32
389.It mipsel      Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __mips_o32
390.It mipselhf    Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __mips_o32
391.It mipshf      Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_o32
392.It mipsn32     Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_n32
393.It mips64      Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_n64
394.It mips64el    Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __mips_n64
395.It mips64elhf  Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __mips_n64
396.It mips64hf    Ta Dv __mips__, Dv __MIPSEB__, Dv __mips_n64
397.It powerpc     Ta Dv __powerpc__
398.It powerpcspe  Ta Dv __powerpc__, Dv __SPE__
399.It powerpc64   Ta Dv __powerpc__, Dv __powerpc64__
400.It riscv64     Ta Dv __riscv, Dv __riscv_xlen == 64
401.It riscv64sf   Ta Dv __riscv, Dv __riscv_xlen == 64
402.It sparc64     Ta Dv __sparc64__
403.El
404.Pp
405Compilers may define additional variants of architecture-specific macros.
406The macros above are preferred for use in
407.Fx .
408.Ss Important Xr make 1 variables
409Most of the externally settable variables are defined in the
410.Xr build 7
411man page.
412These variables are not otherwise documented and are used extensively
413in the build system.
414.Bl -tag -width "MACHINE_CPUARCH"
415.It Dv MACHINE
416Represents the hardware platform.
417This is the same as the native platform's
418.Xr uname 1
419.Fl m
420output.
421It defines both the userland / kernel interface, as well as the
422bootloader / kernel interface.
423It should only be used in these contexts.
424Each CPU architecture may have multiple hardware platforms it supports
425where
426.Dv MACHINE
427differs among them.
428It is used to collect together all the files from
429.Xr config 8
430to build the kernel.
431It is often the same as
432.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
433just as one CPU architecture can be implemented by many different
434hardware platforms, one hardware platform may support multiple CPU
435architecture family members, though with different binaries.
436For example,
437.Dv MACHINE
438of i386 supported the IBM-AT hardware platform while the
439.Dv MACHINE
440of pc98 supported the Japanese company NEC's PC-9801 and PC-9821
441hardware platforms.
442Both of these hardware platforms supported only the
443.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
444of i386 where they shared a common ABI, except for certain kernel /
445userland interfaces relating to underlying hardware platform
446differences in bus architecture, device enumeration and boot interface.
447Generally,
448.Dv MACHINE
449should only be used in src/sys and src/stand or in system imagers or
450installers.
451.It Dv MACHINE_ARCH
452Represents the CPU processor architecture.
453This is the same as the native platforms
454.Xr uname 1
455.Fl p
456output.
457It defines the CPU instruction family supported.
458It may also encode a variation in the byte ordering of multi-byte
459integers (endian).
460It may also encode a variation in the size of the integer or pointer.
461It may also encode a ISA revision.
462It may also encode hard versus soft floating point ABI and usage.
463It may also encode a variant ABI when the other factors do not
464uniquely define the ABI (e.g., MIPS' n32 ABI).
465It, along with
466.Dv MACHINE ,
467defines the ABI used by the system.
468For example, the MIPS CPU processor family supports 9 different
469combinations encoding pointer size, endian and hard versus soft float (for
4708 combinations) as well as N32 (which only ever had one variation of
471all these).
472Generally, the plain CPU name specifies the most common (or at least
473first) variant of the CPU.
474This is why mips and mips64 imply 'big endian' while 'armv6' and 'armv7'
475imply little endian.
476If we ever were to support the so-called x32 ABI (using 32-bit
477pointers on the amd64 architecture), it would most likely be encoded
478as amd64-x32.
479It is unfortunate that amd64 specifies the 64-bit evolution of the x86
480platform (it matches the 'first rule') as everybody else uses x86_64.
481There is no standard name for the processor: each OS selects its own
482conventions.
483.It Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH
484Represents the source location for a given
485.Dv MACHINE_ARCH .
486It is generally the common prefix for all the MACHINE_ARCH that
487share the same implementation, though 'riscv' breaks this rule.
488For example,
489.Dv MACHINE_CPUARCH
490is defined to be mips for all the flavors of mips that we support
491since we support them all with a shared set of sources.
492While amd64 and i386 are closely related, MACHINE_CPUARCH is not x86
493for them.
494The FreeBSD source base supports amd64 and i386 with two
495distinct source bases living in subdirectories named amd64 and i386
496(though behind the scenes there's some sharing that fits into this
497framework).
498.It Dv CPUTYPE
499Sets the flavor of
500.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
501to build.
502It is used to optimize the build for a specific CPU / core that the
503binaries run on.
504Generally, this does not change the ABI, though it can be a fine line
505between optimization for specific cases.
506.It Dv TARGET
507Used to set
508.Dv MACHINE
509in the top level Makefile for cross building.
510Unused outside of that scope.
511It is not passed down to the rest of the build.
512Makefiles outside of the top level should not use it at all (though
513some have their own private copy for hysterical raisons).
514.It Dv TARGET_ARCH
515Used to set
516.Dv MACHINE_ARCH
517by the top level Makefile for cross building.
518Like
519.Dv TARGET ,
520it is unused outside of that scope.
521.El
522.Sh SEE ALSO
523.Xr src.conf 5 ,
524.Xr build 7
525.Sh HISTORY
526An
527.Nm
528manual page appeared in
529.Fx 11.1 .
530