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63<a name="Bundle-directives"></a>
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65<p>
66Next: <a href="Byte.html#Byte" accesskey="n" rel="next">Byte</a>, Previous: <a href="Balign.html#Balign" accesskey="p" rel="previous">Balign</a>, Up: <a href="Pseudo-Ops.html#Pseudo-Ops" accesskey="u" rel="up">Pseudo Ops</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="AS-Index.html#AS-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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69<a name="Bundle-directives-1"></a>
70<h3 class="section">7.9 Bundle directives</h3>
71<a name="g_t_002ebundle_005falign_005fmode-abs_002dexpr"></a>
72<h4 class="subsection">7.9.1 <code>.bundle_align_mode <var>abs-expr</var></code></h4>
73<a name="index-bundle_005falign_005fmode-directive"></a>
74<a name="index-bundle"></a>
75<a name="index-instruction-bundle"></a>
76<a name="index-aligned-instruction-bundle"></a>
77<p><code>.bundle_align_mode</code> enables or disables <em>aligned instruction
78bundle</em> mode.  In this mode, sequences of adjacent instructions are grouped
79into fixed-sized <em>bundles</em>.  If the argument is zero, this mode is
80disabled (which is the default state).  If the argument it not zero, it
81gives the size of an instruction bundle as a power of two (as for the
82<code>.p2align</code> directive, see <a href="P2align.html#P2align">P2align</a>).
83</p>
84<p>For some targets, it&rsquo;s an ABI requirement that no instruction may span a
85certain aligned boundary.  A <em>bundle</em> is simply a sequence of
86instructions that starts on an aligned boundary.  For example, if
87<var>abs-expr</var> is <code>5</code> then the bundle size is 32, so each aligned
88chunk of 32 bytes is a bundle.  When aligned instruction bundle mode is in
89effect, no single instruction may span a boundary between bundles.  If an
90instruction would start too close to the end of a bundle for the length of
91that particular instruction to fit within the bundle, then the space at the
92end of that bundle is filled with no-op instructions so the instruction
93starts in the next bundle.  As a corollary, it&rsquo;s an error if any single
94instruction&rsquo;s encoding is longer than the bundle size.
95</p>
96<a name="g_t_002ebundle_005flock-and-_002ebundle_005funlock"></a>
97<h4 class="subsection">7.9.2 <code>.bundle_lock</code> and <code>.bundle_unlock</code></h4>
98<a name="index-bundle_005flock-directive"></a>
99<a name="index-bundle_005funlock-directive"></a>
100<p>The <code>.bundle_lock</code> and directive <code>.bundle_unlock</code> directives
101allow explicit control over instruction bundle padding.  These directives
102are only valid when <code>.bundle_align_mode</code> has been used to enable
103aligned instruction bundle mode.  It&rsquo;s an error if they appear when
104<code>.bundle_align_mode</code> has not been used at all, or when the last
105directive was <code><span class="nolinebreak">.bundle_align_mode</span>&nbsp;0</code><!-- /@w -->.
106</p>
107<a name="index-bundle_002dlocked"></a>
108<p>For some targets, it&rsquo;s an ABI requirement that certain instructions may
109appear only as part of specified permissible sequences of multiple
110instructions, all within the same bundle.  A pair of <code>.bundle_lock</code>
111and <code>.bundle_unlock</code> directives define a <em>bundle-locked</em>
112instruction sequence.  For purposes of aligned instruction bundle mode, a
113sequence starting with <code>.bundle_lock</code> and ending with
114<code>.bundle_unlock</code> is treated as a single instruction.  That is, the
115entire sequence must fit into a single bundle and may not span a bundle
116boundary.  If necessary, no-op instructions will be inserted before the
117first instruction of the sequence so that the whole sequence starts on an
118aligned bundle boundary.  It&rsquo;s an error if the sequence is longer than the
119bundle size.
120</p>
121<p>For convenience when using <code>.bundle_lock</code> and <code>.bundle_unlock</code>
122inside assembler macros (see <a href="Macro.html#Macro">Macro</a>), bundle-locked sequences may be
123nested.  That is, a second <code>.bundle_lock</code> directive before the next
124<code>.bundle_unlock</code> directive has no effect except that it must be
125matched by another closing <code>.bundle_unlock</code> so that there is the
126same number of <code>.bundle_lock</code> and <code>.bundle_unlock</code> directives.
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