[Mesa-dev] RFC: Supporting mediump in NIR

[Topi Pohjolainen]

I wanted to kick-off discussion on how to support floating point
precision qualifiers in NIR. This is purely on optimization for
GLES where one can reduce the number of GPU cycles. At the moment
the compiler discards the qualifiers early when abstract syntax
tree (AST) is transformed into intermediate presentation (IR).

Iago added the initial support to IR in order to check that the
stages agree on the precision. Naturally I started by rebasing his
work on master (I dropped the actual checking part as it didn't
automatically fit into master). I realized that it isn't sufficient
to have the precision tracked in ir_variable alone. When the IR
is further translated into NIR the precision is needed in ir_rvalue
as well when NIR decides which opcode to use.
Iago's patch isn't needed for the solution here afterall, I just
included it to for context sake.

Now, there are number of implementation alternatives, I think, both
in AST/IR as well is in NIR. I thought I play with one approach to
provide something "real" to aid the decision making regarding the
architecture.

I thought that despite fp16 (medium precision float) isn't really a
proper type in glsl, it would clearer if it were one internally in
the compiler though. I kept thinking fp64 and how I would introduce
that into NIR.
The first step was to do pretty much the same as what Dave Airlie
did for doubles (fp64) in the compiler frontend.

Then in NIR I decided to introduce new opcodes for half floats
instead of modifying the existing float instructions to carry
additional information about the precision.

I would guess that there are drivers that are not really interested
on this and hence we should means for the drivers to tell if the
precision is to be taken into account or not. One natural place
would be in patch number nine. This is just one example of details
missing in the proposal - these patches are only meant to give a
rough idea how the approach chosen would look like.

Iago Toral Quiroga (1):
  glsl: Add tracking for GLSL precision qualifiers

Topi Pohjolainen (15):
  glsl: Add half float type
  mesa: Add half float uniform support
  glsl: Add half float type generation
  glsl: Allow half float type to be used where-ever float is supported
  glsl: Add support for half floats in optimization passes
  glsl: Add ubo lowering support for half floats
  glsl: Add support for half float loop control
  glsl/ast: Use half float type for medium and low precisions
  nir: Introduce half float opcodes
  nir: Consider float precision when deciding between int/float
  nir: Consider float precision when deciding between int/float: part2
  nir: Consider float precision when deciding between uint/int/float
  nir: Consider float precision when deciding between uint/float
  nir: Consider float precision when deciding opcode
  nir: Consider float precision when deciding opcode: part 2

 src/glsl/ast_to_hir.cpp                        |  29 ++-
 src/glsl/builtin_type_macros.h                 |  16 ++
 src/glsl/builtin_types.cpp                     |  31 +++
 src/glsl/glsl_types.cpp                        |  50 ++++-
 src/glsl/glsl_types.h                          |  29 ++-
 src/glsl/ir.h                                  |  13 ++
 src/glsl/ir_clone.cpp                          |   1 +
 src/glsl/ir_print_visitor.cpp                  |   1 +
 src/glsl/ir_validate.cpp                       |  36 ++--
 src/glsl/link_uniform_initializers.cpp         |   2 +
 src/glsl/loop_controls.cpp                     |   1 +
 src/glsl/lower_ubo_reference.cpp               |  12 +-
 src/glsl/nir/glsl_to_nir.cpp                   | 258 +++++++++++--------------
 src/glsl/nir/nir.h                             |   2 +
 src/glsl/nir/nir_constant_expressions.py       |   8 +-
 src/glsl/nir/nir_lower_io.c                    |   1 +
 src/glsl/nir/nir_opcodes.py                    |  78 +++++++-
 src/glsl/opt_algebraic.cpp                     |  11 +-
 src/glsl/opt_constant_propagation.cpp          |   1 +
 src/glsl/opt_minmax.cpp                        |   2 +
 src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_fs.cpp           |   1 +
 src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_fs_visitor.cpp   |   1 +
 src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_shader.cpp       |   1 +
 src/mesa/drivers/dri/i965/brw_vec4_visitor.cpp |   1 +
 src/mesa/main/uniform_query.cpp                |   5 +-
 src/mesa/program/ir_to_mesa.cpp                |   3 +
 26 files changed, 413 insertions(+), 181 deletions(-)

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1.9.3