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Re: $ta0 .. $ta3 registers in O32 on MIPS

From: Ralf Baechle <ralf at linux-mips dot org>
To: Paul_Koning at Dell dot com
Cc: binutils at sourceware dot org, linux-mips at linux-mips dot org, dvdkhlng at gmx dot de
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:43:20 +0200
Subject: Re: $ta0 .. $ta3 registers in O32 on MIPS
References: <20110928123305.GA1971@linux-mips.org> <09787EF419216C41A903FD14EE5506DD030987ABAE@AUSX7MCPC103.AMER.DELL.COM>

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 10:11:40AM -0500, Paul_Koning@Dell.com wrote:

> >I was expecting an error message and I'm wondering, was this intentional?
> 
> I would say so.  I call this a feature.  It makes it easier to write assembly code that assembles without change in both O32 and N32/N64.  Consider a function that has 4 or fewer arguments, but needs a pile of scratch registers.  It can use ta0-ta3 as four scratch registers, which is correct in all the ABIs.

Turns out that later IRIX version also retroactively introduced the
ta registers for O32 and I just never noticed.  So I'm going to change the
Linux kernel headers for consistence and compatibility with everybody else.

  Ralf

References:
- $ta0 .. $ta3 registers in O32 on MIPS
  - From: Ralf Baechle
- RE: $ta0 .. $ta3 registers in O32 on MIPS
  - From: Paul_Koning

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