[vsipl++] Compiling VSIPL++ on Cell PPE

[Hahn Kim]

Hi Jules,

We took a look at the PS3 sal.h over here and compared it to our  
Mercury CTES sal.h and it appears you are correct; SAL's API has been  
updated to explicitly require "signed char *" instead of "char *".   
According to the comments in the file, this was changed on June 15,  
2007.  It also appears that this change pops up in a bunch of places.

I'm sending along the entire sal.h for your reference.  I'm guessing  
the build of SAL we have for our PS3 is an advance copy.

If we could get a snapshot, that would be great.  We'll also notify  
Mercury that we encountered this problem, as you suggested.  Thanks!

Hahn




On Oct 9, 2007, at 12:30 PM, Jules Bergmann wrote:

> Hahn,
>
> As far as I can tell, it looks like Mercury changed their API.  
> According to the latest SAL documentation,
>
> https://customers.mc.com/self_solve/docs/doc_files/SAL_Reference.pdf
>
> vconvert_s8_f32x takes a 'char*' first argument:
>
> void vconvert_s8_f32x(
> char *A, /* input vector */
> int i, /* address stride for A */
> float *C, /* output vector */
> int k, /* address stride for C */
> float *scale, /* pointer to scale value (NULL=1.0) */
> float *bias /* pointer to bias value (NULL=0.0) */
> int n, /* element count */
> int rfflag, /* reserved */
> int eflag ); /* ESAL flag */
>
> This is consistent with our experience using SAL.
>
> However, from your error message,
>
>> src/vsip/opt/sal/elementwise.hpp:256: error: invalid conversion  
>> from ‘char* const’ to ‘signed char*’
>> src/vsip/opt/sal/elementwise.hpp:256: error:   initializing  
>> argument 1 of ‘void vconvert_s8_f32x(signed char*, int, float*,  
>> int, float*, float*, int, int, int)’
>> make: *** [src/vsip/initfin.o] Error 1
>
> it now appears SAL expects a 'signed char*'.  You might look at  
> sal.h to confirm this change.  If so, you might also let Mercury  
> know, since they probably didn't mean to break application  
> compatibility like this.
>
> We can of course work around this in VSIPL++.  The easiest way for  
> us to fix this by sending you an updated snapshot.  However, if it  
> is more convenient for you, we can also send you a patch against  
> 1.3 or 1.3.1. Let me know which you would prefer.
>
> 				-- Jules
>
> -- 
> Jules Bergmann
> CodeSourcery
> jules at codesourcery.com
> (650) 331-3385 x705
>

-- 
Hahn Kim
MIT Lincoln Laboratory   Phone: (781) 981-0940
244 Wood Street, S2-252  Fax: (781) 981-5255
Lexington, MA 02420      E-mail: hgk at ll.mit.edu



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