pto.vstar

pto.vstar is part of the Vector Load Store instruction set.

Summary

Flush remaining alignment state.

Mechanism

pto.vstar is part of the PTO vector memory/data-movement instruction set. It keeps UB addressing, distribution, mask behavior, and any alignment-state threading explicit in SSA form rather than hiding those details in backend-specific lowering.

Syntax

PTO Assembly Form

vstar %value, %dest

AS Level 1 (SSA)

pto.vstar %value, %dest : !pto.align, !pto.ptr<T, ub>

Inputs

%value is the pending alignment/buffer state that still needs to be emitted, and %dest is the UB destination base pointer.

Expected Outputs

No SSA result. The effect is a memory-side flush that writes the remaining buffered bytes to memory.

Side Effects

This operation writes UB-visible memory and/or updates streamed alignment state. Stateful unaligned forms expose their evolving state in SSA form, but a trailing flush form may still be required to complete the stream.

Constraints

Constraints

This op terminates an unaligned-store sequence. It MUST be paired with a compatible prior state-producing store sequence so that the pending tail state is well-defined.

Exceptions

Exceptions

  • It is illegal to use addresses outside the required UB-visible space or to violate the alignment/distribution contract of the selected form.
  • Masked-off lanes or inactive blocks do not make an otherwise-illegal address valid unless the operation text explicitly says so.
  • Any additional illegality stated in the constraints section is also part of the contract.

Target-Profile Restrictions

Target-Profile Restrictions
  • A5 is the most detailed concrete profile in the current manual; CPU simulation and A2/A3-class targets may support narrower subsets or emulate the behavior while preserving the visible PTO contract.
  • Code that depends on an instruction-set-specific type list, distribution mode, or fused form should treat that dependency as target-profile-specific unless the PTO manual states cross-target portability explicitly.

Performance

Timing Disclosure

The current public VPTO timing material for PTO micro instructions remains limited. For pto.vstar, those public sources describe the instruction semantics, operand legality, and pipeline placement, but they do not publish a numeric latency or steady-state throughput.

Metric Status Source Basis
A5 latency Not publicly published Current public VPTO timing material
Steady-state throughput Not publicly published Current public VPTO timing material

If software scheduling or performance modeling depends on the exact cost of pto.vstar, treat that cost as target-profile-specific and measure it on the concrete backend rather than inferring a manual constant.

Examples

pto.vstar %value, %dest : !pto.align, !pto.ptr<T, ub>

Stateful Store Ops

These ops make reference-updated state explicit as SSA results.