Re: [PATCH] Kill div64.h dupes, parenthesize do_div() macro params

Peter Chubb (peter@chubb.wattle.id.au)
Wed, 2 Jul 2003 13:36:03 +1000


>>>>> "Bernardo" == Bernardo Innocenti <bernie@develer.com> writes:

Bernardo> On Wednesday 02 July 2003 02:36, Andrew Morton wrote:

Bernardo> If there are architectures where gcc doesn't implement
Bernardo> divisions correctly, this issue should be solved in gcc, not
Bernardo> by adding a silly macro to the kernel.

The issue is that on 32-bit platforms, 64bit divided by 32 bit is
handed off to a subroutine _udivdi3 which isn't linked into the
kernel, and which in any case does a full 64 bit by 64-bit division
(which is slow).

Using do_div() allows one to generate near-optimal code for a 64by32
bit division/remainder on platforms (e.g., IA32) which have problems,
and generating something sane for other platforms (e.g., IA64).

Platforms that never expect to deal with a 64-bit number just redefine
the macro in terms of long. Which means that printing out long longs
doesn't work properly on those architectures.

--
Dr Peter Chubb  http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au  peterc AT gelato.unsw.edu.au
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