SPRAC71B February   2019  – October 2023

 

  1.   1
  2. 1 Introduction
    1. 1.1  ABIs for the C28x
    2. 1.2  Scope
    3. 1.3  ABI Variants
    4. 1.4  Toolchains and Interoperability
    5. 1.5  Libraries
    6. 1.6  Types of Object Files
    7. 1.7  Segments
    8. 1.8  C28x Architecture Overview
    9. 1.9  C28x Memory Models
    10. 1.10 Reference Documents
    11. 1.11 Code Fragment Notation
  3. 2 Data Representation
    1. 2.1 Basic Types
    2. 2.2 Data in Registers
    3. 2.3 Data in Memory
    4. 2.4 Pointer Types
    5. 2.5 Complex Types
    6. 2.6 Structures and Unions
    7. 2.7 Arrays
    8. 2.8 Bit Fields
      1. 2.8.1 Volatile Bit Fields
    9. 2.9 Enumeration Types
  4. 3 Calling Conventions
    1. 3.1 Call and Return
      1. 3.1.1 Call Instructions
        1. 3.1.1.1 Indirect Calls
        2. 3.1.1.2 Direct Calls
      2. 3.1.2 Return Instruction
      3. 3.1.3 Pipeline Conventions
      4. 3.1.4 Weak Functions
    2. 3.2 Register Conventions
      1. 3.2.1 Argument Registers
      2. 3.2.2 Callee-Saved Registers
    3. 3.3 Argument Passing
      1. 3.3.1 Passing 16-Bit Arguments
      2. 3.3.2 Passing Longer Arguments
      3. 3.3.3 C++ Argument Passing
      4. 3.3.4 Passing Structs and Unions
      5. 3.3.5 Stack Layout of Arguments Not Passed in Registers
      6. 3.3.6 Frame Pointer
    4. 3.4 Return Values
    5. 3.5 Structures and Unions Passed and Returned by Reference
    6. 3.6 Conventions for Compiler Helper Functions
    7. 3.7 Prolog and Epilog Helper Functions
    8. 3.8 Scratch Registers for Functions Already Seen
    9. 3.9 Interrupt Functions
  5. 4 Data Allocation and Addressing
    1. 4.1 Data Sections and Segments
    2. 4.2 Data Blocking
    3. 4.3 Addressing Modes
    4. 4.4 Allocation and Addressing of Static Data
      1. 4.4.1 Addressing Methods for Static Data
      2. 4.4.2 Placement Conventions for Static Data
        1. 4.4.2.1 Abstract Conventions for Addressing
      3. 4.4.3 Initialization of Static Data
    5. 4.5 Automatic Variables
    6. 4.6 Frame Layout
      1. 4.6.1 Stack Alignment
      2. 4.6.2 Register Save Order
    7. 4.7 Heap-Allocated Objects
  6. 5 Code Allocation and Addressing
    1. 5.1 Computing the Address of a Code Label
    2. 5.2 Calls
      1. 5.2.1 Direct Call
      2. 5.2.2 Far Call Trampoline
      3. 5.2.3 Indirect Calls
  7. 6 Helper Function API
    1. 6.1 Floating-Point Behavior
    2. 6.2 C Helper Function API
    3. 6.3 Floating-Point Helper Functions for C99
  8. 7 Standard C Library API
    1. 7.1  About Standard C Libraries
    2. 7.2  Reserved Symbols
    3. 7.3  <assert.h> Implementation
    4. 7.4  <complex.h> Implementation
    5. 7.5  <ctype.h> Implementation
    6. 7.6  <errno.h> Implementation
    7. 7.7  <float.h> Implementation
    8. 7.8  <inttypes.h> Implementation
    9. 7.9  <iso646.h> Implementation
    10. 7.10 <limits.h> Implementation
    11. 7.11 <locale.h> Implementation
    12. 7.12 <math.h> Implementation
    13. 7.13 <setjmp.h> Implementation
    14. 7.14 <signal.h> Implementation
    15. 7.15 <stdarg.h> Implementation
    16. 7.16 <stdbool.h> Implementation
    17. 7.17 <stddef.h> Implementation
    18. 7.18 <stdint.h> Implementation
    19. 7.19 <stdio.h> Implementation
    20. 7.20 <stdlib.h> Implementation
    21. 7.21 <string.h> Implementation
    22. 7.22 <tgmath.h> Implementation
    23. 7.23 <time.h> Implementation
    24. 7.24 <wchar.h> Implementation
    25. 7.25 <wctype.h> Implementation
  9. 8 C++ ABI
    1. 8.1  Limits (GC++ABI 1.2)
    2. 8.2  Export Template (GC++ABI 1.4.2)
    3. 8.3  Data Layout (GC++ABI Chapter 2)
    4. 8.4  Initialization Guard Variables (GC++ABI 2.8)
    5. 8.5  Constructor Return Value (GC++ABI 3.1.5)
    6. 8.6  One-Time Construction API (GC++ABI 3.3.2)
    7. 8.7  Controlling Object Construction Order (GC++ ABI 3.3.4)
    8. 8.8  Demangler API (GC++ABI 3.4)
    9. 8.9  Static Data (GC++ ABI 5.2.2)
    10. 8.10 Virtual Tables and the Key function (GC++ABI 5.2.3)
    11. 8.11 Unwind Table Location (GC++ABI 5.3)
  10. 9 Exception Handling
    1. 9.1  Overview
    2. 9.2  PREL31 Encoding
    3. 9.3  The Exception Index Table (EXIDX)
      1. 9.3.1 Pointer to Out-of-Line EXTAB Entry
      2. 9.3.2 EXIDX_CANTUNWIND
      3. 9.3.3 Inlined EXTAB Entry
    4. 9.4  The Exception Handling Instruction Table (EXTAB)
      1. 9.4.1 EXTAB Generic Model
      2. 9.4.2 EXTAB Compact Model
      3. 9.4.3 Personality Routines
    5. 9.5  Unwinding Instructions
      1. 9.5.1 Common Sequence
      2. 9.5.2 Byte-Encoded Unwinding Instructions
    6. 9.6  Descriptors
      1. 9.6.1 Encoding of Type Identifiers
      2. 9.6.2 Scope
      3. 9.6.3 Cleanup Descriptor
      4. 9.6.4 Catch Descriptor
      5. 9.6.5 Function Exception Specification (FESPEC) Descriptor
    7. 9.7  Special Sections
    8. 9.8  Interaction With Non-C++ Code
      1. 9.8.1 Automatic EXIDX Entry Generation
      2. 9.8.2 Hand-Coded Assembly Functions
    9. 9.9  Interaction With System Features
      1. 9.9.1 Shared Libraries
      2. 9.9.2 Overlays
      3. 9.9.3 Interrupts
    10. 9.10 Assembly Language Operators in the TI Toolchain
  11. 10DWARF
    1. 10.1 DWARF Register Names
    2. 10.2 Call Frame Information
    3. 10.3 Vendor Names
    4. 10.4 Vendor Extensions
  12. 11ELF Object Files (Processor Supplement)
    1. 11.1 Registered Vendor Names
    2. 11.2 ELF Header
    3. 11.3 Sections
      1. 11.3.1 Section Indexes
      2. 11.3.2 Section Types
      3. 11.3.3 Extended Section Header Attributes
      4. 11.3.4 Subsections
      5. 11.3.5 Special Sections
      6. 11.3.6 Section Alignment
    4. 11.4 Symbol Table
      1. 11.4.1 Symbol Types
      2. 11.4.2 Common Block Symbols
      3. 11.4.3 Symbol Names
      4. 11.4.4 Reserved Symbol Names
      5. 11.4.5 Mapping Symbols
    5. 11.5 Relocation
      1. 11.5.1 Relocation Types
        1. 11.5.1.1 Absolute Relocations
        2. 11.5.1.2 PC-Relative Relocations
        3. 11.5.1.3 Relocations in Data Sections
        4. 11.5.1.4 Relocations for C28x Instructions
        5. 11.5.1.5 Other Relocation Types
      2. 11.5.2 Relocation Operations
      3. 11.5.3 Relocation of Unresolved Weak References
  13. 12ELF Program Loading and Linking (Processor Supplement)
    1. 12.1 Program Header
      1. 12.1.1 Base Address
      2. 12.1.2 Segment Contents
      3. 12.1.3 Thread-Local Storage
    2. 12.2 Program Loading
  14. 13Build Attributes
    1. 13.1 About Build Attributes
    2. 13.2 C28x ABI Build Attribute Subsection
    3. 13.3 Build Attribute Tags
  15. 14Copy Tables and Variable Initialization
    1. 14.1 About Copy Tables
    2. 14.2 Copy Table Format
    3. 14.3 Compressed Data Formats
      1. 14.3.1 RLE
      2. 14.3.2 LZSS Format
    4. 14.4 Variable Initialization
  16. 15Revision History
    1.     188

1.1 ABIs for the C28x

Prior to release 18.12.0.LTS of TI's C28x Compiler Tools, the one and only ABI for C28x was the original COFF-based ABI. It was strictly a bare-metal ABI; there was no execution-level component.

Release 18.12.0.LTS of the TI Compiler Tools introduced a new ABI called the C28x EABI. It is based on the ELF object file format. It is derived from industry standard models, including the IA-64 C++ ABI and the System V ABI for ELF and Dynamic Linking. The processor-specific aspects of the ABI, such as data layout and calling conventions, are largely unchanged from the COFF ABI, although there are some differences. Needless to say, the COFF ABI and the EABI are incompatible; that is to say, all of the code in a given system must follow the same ABI. TI's compiler tools support both the new EABI and the older COFF ABI, although we encourage migration to the new ABI as support for the COFF ABI may be discontinued in the future.

A platform is the software environment upon which a program runs. The ABI has platform-specific aspects, particularly in the area of conventions related to the execution environment, such as the number and use of program segments, addressing conventions, visibility conventions, pre-emption, program loading, and initialization. Currently bare metal is the only supported platform. The term bare metal represents the absence of any specific environment. That is not to say there cannot be an OS; it simply says that there are no OS-specific ABI specifications. In other words, how the program is loaded and run, and how it interacts with other parts of the system, is not covered by the bare-metal ABI.

The bare-metal ABI allows substantial variability in many specific aspects. For example, an implementation may provide position independence (PIC), but if a given system does not require position independence, these conventions do not apply. Because of this variability, programs may still be ABI-conforming but incompatible; for example if one program uses PIC but the other does not, they cannot interoperate. Toolchains should endeavor to enforce such incompatibilities.