Built-in functions

The following major categories of built-in functions are new to this release.

POWER8 built-in functions for vector processing

The following vector built-in functions are added:

The vector gather-bits-by-bytes doubleword function
- vec_gbb
The vector count leading zeros function
- vec_cntlz
The vector population count function
- vec_popcnt
Extended vector logical operations functions
- vec_eqv
- vec_nand
- vec_orc
128-bit integer add subtract functions
- vec_add_u128
- vec_sub_u128
- vec_adde_u128
- vec_sube_u128
- vec_addc_u128
- vec_subc_u128
- vec_addec_u128
- vec_subec_u128
- vec_bperm

The following built-in functions are extended to support doubleword types:

Vector pack functions
- vec_pack
- vec_packs
- vec_packsu
Vector unpack functions
- vec_unpackh
- vec_unpackl
Vector add and subtract functions
- vec_add
- vec_sub
Vector max and min functions
- vec_max
- vec_min
Vector shift and rotate functions
- vec_rl
- vec_sl
- vec_sr
- vec_sra
Vector compare functions
- vec_cmpeq
- vec_cmpgt
- vec_cmpge
- vec_cmplt
- vec_cmple

POWER8 binary-coded decimal built-in functions

The following built-in functions are added to support binary-coded decimal (BCD) arithmetic and comparison:

BCD add and subtract functions
- __bcdadd
- __bcdsub
BCD test add and subtract for overflow functions
- __bcdadd_ofl
- __bcdsub_ofl
- __bcd_invalid
BCD comparison functions
- __bcdcmpeq
- __bcdcmpgt
- __bcdcmpge
- __bcdcmplt
- __bcdcmple
BCD load and store functions
- __vec_ldrmb
- __vec_strmb

POWER8 cryptography built-in functions

The following built-in functions are provided to perform cryptographic operations:

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) functions
- __vcipher
- __vcipherlast
- __vncipher
- __vncipherlast
- __vsbox
Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA) functions
- __vshasigmad
- __vshasigmaw
Miscellaneous functions
- __vpmsumb
- __vpmsumh
- __vpmsumw
- __vpmsumd
- __vpermxor

POWER8 non-vector built-in functions

The following built-in functions are added to improve the efficiency of cache:

__dcbtna
__icbt

Load and store built-in functions are extended with the following functions to support more types:

__lqarx
__lharx
__lbarx
__stqcx
__sthcx
__stbcx

POWER8 transactional memory built-in functions

Transactional memory is a model for parallel programming. In this model, you can designate a block of instructions or statements to be treated atomically.

You can use the following built-in functions to mark the beginning or end of transactions, and to diagnose the reasons for failure:

Transaction begin and end functions
- __TM_begin
- __TM_end
- __TM_simple_begin
Transaction abort functions
- __TM_abort
- __TM_named_abort
Transaction inquiry functions
- __TM_failure_address
- __TM_failure_code
- __TM_is_conflict
- __TM_is_failure_persistent
- __TM_is_footprint_exceeded
- __TM_is_illegal
- __TM_is_named_user_abort
- __TM_is_nested_too_deep
- __TM_is_user_abort
- __TM_nesting_depth

POWER8 prefetch built-in functions

The following built-in functions display the problem state control of the Data Stream Control Register (DSCR) in an intuitive, portable, and optimization-friendly way:

Transient attribute enable functions
- __hardware_transient_enable
- __load_transient_enable
- __software_transient_enable
- __store_transient_enable
Unit count enable and set functions
- __hardware_unit_count_enable
- __software_unit_count_enable
- __set_prefetch_unit_count
Prefetch depth functions
- __default_prefetch_depth
- __depth_attainment_urgency
Load stream enable and disable functions
- __load_stream_disable
- __stride_n_stream_enable
DSCR functions
- __prefetch_get_dscr_register
- __prefetch_set_dscr_register

Note: POWER8™ built-in functions are valid only when -qarch is set to target POWER8 processors.

For more information about built-in functions provided by XL C/C++, see Compiler built-in functions .