AMDGPU Instruction Syntax

(amdgpu_syn_instructions)=

Instructions

Syntax

Syntax of Regular Instructions

An instruction has the following syntax:

<opcode mnemonic> <operand0>, <operand1>,... <modifier0> <modifier1>...

Operands are normally comma-separated, while modifiers are space-separated.

The order of operands and modifiers is fixed. Most modifiers are optional and may be omitted.

Syntax of VOPD Instructions

VOPDX and VOPDY instructions must be concatenated with the :: operator to form a single VOPD instruction:

<VOPDX instruction> :: <VOPDY instruction>

An example:

:::{parsed-literal} v_dual_add_f32 v255, v255, v2 :: v_dual_fmaak_f32 v6, v2, v3, 1.0 :::

Note that VOPDX and VOPDY instructions cannot be used as separate opcodes.

(amdgpu_syn_instruction_mnemo)=

Opcode Mnemonic

Opcode mnemonic describes opcode semantics and may include one or more suffices in this order:

  • {ref}Packing suffix<amdgpu_syn_instruction_pk>.
  • {ref}Destination operand type suffix<amdgpu_syn_instruction_type>.
  • {ref}Source operand type suffix<amdgpu_syn_instruction_type>.
  • {ref}Encoding suffix<amdgpu_syn_instruction_enc>.

(amdgpu_syn_instruction_pk)=

Packing Suffix

Most instructions which operate on packed data have a _pk suffix. Unless otherwise {ref}noted<amdgpu_syn_instruction_operand_tags>, these instructions operate on and produce packed data composed of two values. The type of values is indicated by {ref}type suffices<amdgpu_syn_instruction_type>.

For example, the following instruction sums up two pairs of f16 values and produces a pair of f16 values:

:::{parsed-literal} v_pk_add_f16 v1, v2, v3 // Each operand has f16x2 type :::

(amdgpu_syn_instruction_type)=

Type and Size Suffices

Instructions which operate with data have an implied type of data operands. This data type is specified as a suffix of instruction mnemonic.

There are instructions which have 2 type suffices: the first is the data type of the destination operand, the second is the data type of source data operand(s).

Note that data type specified by an instruction does not apply to other kinds of operands such as addresses, offsets and so on.

The following table enumerates the most frequently used type suffices.

Type SufficesPacked instruction?Data Type
_b512, _b256, _b128, _b64, _b32, _b16, _b8NoBits.
_u64, _u32, _u16, _u8NoUnsigned integer.
_i64, _i32, _i16, _i8NoSigned integer.
_f64, _f32, _f16NoFloating-point.
_b16, _u16, _i16, _f16YesPacked (b16x2, u16x2, etc).

Instructions which have no type suffices are assumed to operate with typeless data. The size of typeless data is specified by size suffices:

Size SuffixImplied data typeRequired register size in dwords
-b321
x2b642
x3b963
x4b1284
x8b2568
x16b51216
xb321
xyb642
xyzb963
xyzwb1284
d16_xb161
d16_xyb16x22 for GFX8.0, 1 for GFX8.1 and GFX9+
d16_xyzb16x33 for GFX8.0, 2 for GFX8.1 and GFX9+
d16_xyzwb16x44 for GFX8.0, 2 for GFX8.1 and GFX9+
d16_format_xb161
d16_format_xyb16x21
d16_format_xyzb16x32
d16_format_xyzwb16x42

:::{WARNING} There are exceptions to the rules described above. Operands which have a type different from the type specified by the opcode are {ref}tagged<amdgpu_syn_instruction_operand_tags> in the description. :::

Examples of instructions with different types of source and destination operands:

:::{parsed-literal} s_bcnt0_i32_b64 v_cvt_f32_u32 :::

Examples of instructions with one data type:

:::{parsed-literal} v_max3_f32 v_max3_i16 :::

Examples of instructions which operate with packed data:

:::{parsed-literal} v_pk_add_u16 v_pk_add_i16 v_pk_add_f16 :::

Examples of typeless instructions which operate on b128 data:

:::{parsed-literal} buffer_store_dwordx4 flat_load_dwordx4 :::

(amdgpu_syn_instruction_enc)=

Encoding Suffices

Most VOP1, VOP2 and VOPC instructions have several variants: they may also be encoded in VOP3, DPP and SDWA formats.

The assembler selects an optimal encoding automatically based on instruction operands and modifiers, unless a specific encoding is explicitly requested. To force specific encoding, one can add a suffix to the opcode of the instruction:

EncodingEncoding Suffix
VOP1, VOP2 and VOPC (32-bit) encoding_e32
VOP3 (64-bit) encoding_e64
DPP encoding_dpp
SDWA encoding_sdwa
VOP3 DPP encoding_e64_dpp

This reference uses encoding suffices to specify which encoding is implied. When no suffix is specified, native instruction encoding is assumed.

Operands

Syntax

The syntax of generic operands is described in this document.

For detailed information about operands, follow operand links in GPU-specific documents.

Modifiers

Syntax

The syntax of modifiers is described in this document.

Information about modifiers supported for individual instructions may be found in GPU-specific documents.