Generate x86 Assembly with Go
`avo` makes high-performance Go assembly easier to write, review and maintain. The `avo` package presents a familiar assembly-like interface that simplifies development without sacrificing performance: * **Use Go control structures** for assembly generation; `avo` programs _are_ Go programs * **Register allocation**: write functions with virtual registers and `avo` assigns physical registers for you * **Automatically load arguments and store return values**: ensure memory offsets are correct for complex structures * **Generation of stub files** to interface with your Go package For more about `avo`: * Introductory talk ["Better `x86` Assembly Generation with Go"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y5CZ7_tyA4) at [dotGo 2019](https://2019.dotgo.eu/) ([slides](https://speakerdeck.com/mmcloughlin/better-x86-assembly-generation-with-go)) * [Longer tutorial at Gophercon 2019](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaD8sNqroAw) showing a highly-optimized dot product ([slides](https://speakerdeck.com/mmcloughlin/better-x86-assembly-generation-with-go-gophercon-2019)) * Watch [Filippo Valsorda](https://filippo.io/) live code the [rewrite of `filippo.io/edwards25519` assembly with `avo`](https://vimeo.com/679848853) * Explore [projects using `avo`](doc/adopters.md) * Discuss `avo` and general Go assembly topics in the [#assembly](https://gophers.slack.com/archives/C6WDZJ70S) channel of [Gophers Slack](https://invite.slack.golangbridge.org/) _Note: APIs subject to change while `avo` is still in an experimental phase. You can use it to build [real things](examples) but we suggest you pin a version with your package manager of choice._ ## Quick Start Install `avo` with `go get`: ``` $ go get -u github.com/mmcloughlin/avo ``` `avo` assembly generators are pure Go programs. Here's a function that adds two `uint64` values: ```go //go:build ignore package main import . "github.com/mmcloughlin/avo/build" func main() { TEXT("Add", NOSPLIT, "func(x, y uint64) uint64") Doc("Add adds x and y.") x := Load(Param("x"), GP64()) y := Load(Param("y"), GP64()) ADDQ(x, y) Store(y, ReturnIndex(0)) RET() Generate() } ``` `go run` this code to see the assembly output. To integrate this into the rest of your Go package we recommend a [`go:generate`](https://blog.golang.org/generate) line to produce the assembly and the corresponding Go stub file. ```go //go:generate go run asm.go -out add.s -stubs stub.go ``` After running `go generate` the [`add.s`](examples/add/add.s) file will contain the Go assembly. ```s // Code generated by command: go run asm.go -out add.s -stubs stub.go. DO NOT EDIT. #include "textflag.h" // func Add(x uint64, y uint64) uint64 TEXT ·Add(SB), NOSPLIT, $0-24 MOVQ x+0(FP), AX MOVQ y+8(FP), CX ADDQ AX, CX MOVQ CX, ret+16(FP) RET ``` The same call will produce the stub file [`stub.go`](examples/add/stub.go) which will enable the function to be called from your Go code. ```go // Code generated by command: go run asm.go -out add.s -stubs stub.go. DO NOT EDIT. package add // Add adds x and y. func Add(x uint64, y uint64) uint64 ``` See the [`examples/add`](examples/add) directory for the complete working example. ## Examples See [`examples`](examples) for the full suite of examples. ### Slice Sum Sum a slice of `uint64`s: ```go func main() { TEXT("Sum", NOSPLIT, "func(xs []uint64) uint64") Doc("Sum returns the sum of the elements in xs.") ptr := Load(Param("xs").Base(), GP64()) n := Load(Param("xs").Len(), GP64()) Comment("Initialize sum register to zero.") s := GP64() XORQ(s, s) Label("loop") Comment("Loop until zero bytes remain.") CMPQ(n, Imm(0)) JE(LabelRef("done")) Comment("Load from pointer and add to running sum.") ADDQ(Mem{Base: ptr}, s) Comment("Advance pointer, decrement byte count.") ADDQ(Imm(8), ptr) DECQ(n) JMP(LabelRef("loop")) Label("done") Comment("Store sum to return value.") Store(s, ReturnIndex(0)) RET() Generate() } ``` The result from this code generator is: ```s // Code generated by command: go run asm.go -out sum.s -stubs stub.go. DO NOT EDIT. #include "textflag.h" // func Sum(xs []uint64) uint64 TEXT ·Sum(SB), NOSPLIT, $0-32 MOVQ xs_base+0(FP), AX MOVQ xs_len+8(FP), CX // Initialize sum register to zero. XORQ DX, DX loop: // Loop until zero bytes remain. CMPQ CX, $0x00 JE done // Load from pointer and add to running sum. ADDQ (AX), DX // Advance pointer, decrement byte count. ADDQ $0x08, AX DECQ CX JMP loop done: // Store sum to return value. MOVQ DX, ret+24(FP) RET ``` Full example at [`examples/sum`](examples/sum). ### Features For demonstrations of `avo` features: * **[args](examples/args):** Loading function arguments. * **[returns](examples/returns):** Building return values. * **[complex](examples/complex):** Working with `complex{64,128}` types. * **[data](examples/data):** Defining `DATA` sections. * **[ext](examples/ext):** Interacting with types from external packages. * **[pragma](examples/pragma):** Apply compiler directives to generated functions. ### Real Examples Implementations of full algorithms: * **[sha1](examples/sha1):** [SHA-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-1) cryptographic hash. * **[fnv1a](examples/fnv1a):** [FNV-1a](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowler%E2%80%93Noll%E2%80%93Vo_hash_function#FNV-1a_hash) hash function. * **[dot](examples/dot):** Vector dot product. * **[md5x16](examples/md5x16):** AVX-512 accelerated [MD5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5). * **[geohash](examples/geohash):** Integer [geohash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geohash) encoding. * **[stadtx](examples/stadtx):** [`StadtX` hash](https://github.com/demerphq/BeagleHash) port from [dgryski/go-stadtx](https://github.com/dgryski/go-stadtx). ## Adopters Popular projects[^projects] using `avo`: [^projects]: Projects drawn from the `avo` third-party test suite. Popularity estimated from Github star count collected on Feb 1, 2024.
[golang / **go**](https://github.com/golang/go)
:star: 117.5k
> The Go programming language
[klauspost / **compress**](https://github.com/klauspost/compress)
:star: 4.4k
> Optimized Go Compression Packages
[golang / **crypto**](https://github.com/golang/crypto)
:star: 2.9k
> [mirror] Go supplementary cryptography libraries
[klauspost / **reedsolomon**](https://github.com/klauspost/reedsolomon)
:star: 1.8k
> Reed-Solomon Erasure Coding in Go
[bytedance / **gopkg**](https://github.com/bytedance/gopkg)
:star: 1.4k
> Universal Utilities for Go
[cloudflare / **circl**](https://github.com/cloudflare/circl)
:star: 1.1k
> CIRCL: Cloudflare Interoperable Reusable Cryptographic Library
[segmentio / **asm**](https://github.com/segmentio/asm)
:star: 831
> Go library providing algorithms optimized to leverage the characteristics of modern CPUs
[zeebo / **xxh3**](https://github.com/zeebo/xxh3)
:star: 363
> XXH3 algorithm in Go
[zeebo / **blake3**](https://github.com/zeebo/blake3)
:star: 357
> Pure Go implementation of BLAKE3 with AVX2 and SSE4.1 acceleration
[lukechampine / **blake3**](https://github.com/lukechampine/blake3)
:star: 319
> A pure-Go implementation of the BLAKE3 cryptographic hash function
See the [full list of projects using `avo`](doc/adopters.md).
## Contributing
Contributions to `avo` are welcome:
* Feedback from using `avo` in a real project is incredibly valuable. Consider [porting an existing project to `avo`](https://github.com/mmcloughlin/avo/issues/40).
* [Submit bug reports](https://github.com/mmcloughlin/avo/issues/new) to the issues page.
* Pull requests accepted. Take a look at outstanding [issues](https://github.com/mmcloughlin/avo/issues) for ideas (especially the ["good first issue"](https://github.com/mmcloughlin/avo/labels/good%20first%20issue) label).
* Join us in the [#assembly](https://gophers.slack.com/archives/C6WDZJ70S) channel of [Gophers Slack](https://invite.slack.golangbridge.org/).
## Credits
Inspired by the [PeachPy](https://github.com/Maratyszcza/PeachPy) and [asmjit](https://github.com/asmjit/asmjit) projects. Thanks to [Damian Gryski](https://github.com/dgryski) for advice, and his [extensive library of PeachPy Go projects](https://github.com/mmcloughlin/avo/issues/40).
## License
`avo` is available under the [BSD 3-Clause License](LICENSE).