= Floating Point Support =



[[TOC(TBR/UserManual/Floating_Point_Support, depth=2)]]


RTEMS provides software and hardware floating-point support. However, there are some issues to beware of when building RTEMS and when building your applications.

This page has been written from a SPARC BSP perspective, so some things here may not be generally applicable.
= Task/Thread Support =

= RTEMS API =


The presence or absence of the {{{RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT</code> attribute in the call to {{{rtems_task_create()</code> determines whether or not the task is floating-point enabled.

From the ''RTEMS C User's Guide'':

 Creating a task with the RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT attribute flag results in additional memory being allocated for the TCB to store the state of the numeric coprocessor during task switches. This additional memory is NOT allocated for RTEMS_NO_FLOATING_POINT tasks. Saving and restoring the context of a RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT task takes longer than that of a RTEMS_NO_FLOATING_POINT task because of the relatively large amount of time required for the numeric coprocessor to save or restore its computational state.

...

 If the supported processor type does not have hardware floating capabilities or a standard numeric coprocessor, RTEMS will not provide built-in support for hardware floating point on that processor. In this case, all tasks are considered RTEMS_NO_FLOATING_POINT whether created as RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT or RTEMS_NO_FLOATING_POINT tasks. A floating point emulation software library must be utilized for floating point operations.

 On some processors, it is possible to disable the floating point unit dynamically. If this capability is supported by the target processor, then RTEMS will utilize this capability to enable the floating point unit only for tasks which are created with the RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT attribute. The consequence of a RTEMS_NO_FLOATING_POINT task attempting to access the floating point unit is CPU dependent but will generally result in an exception condition.
== RTEMS Init Task ==


The RTEMS Init task is not floating point by default (has {{{RTEMS_DEFAULT_ATTRIBUTES</code>). It can be made floating point by #defining {{{ CONFIGURE_INIT_TASK_ATTRIBUTES RTEMS_FLOATING_POINT</code> before including {{{confdefs.h</code>
=  POSIX API  =


All POSIX threads are floating point, if either software or hardware floating point is defined to be available '''at the time of compilation of the RTEMS libraries''' (see more below). From ''pthreadcreate.c'':

  /*
   *  Currently all POSIX threads are floating point if the hardware
   *  supports it.
   */
  #if ( CPU_HARDWARE_FP == TRUE ) || ( CPU_SOFTWARE_FP == TRUE )
    is_fp = true;
  #else
    is_fp = false;
  #endif

{{{is_fp</code> is then used in a call to {{{_Thread_Initialize</code>, similar to the ITRON code segment below.
=  ITRON API  =


All ITRON tasks are floating point, if either software or hardware floating point is defined to be available '''at the time of compilation of the RTEMS libraries''' (see more below). From ''cre_tsk.c'':

  status = _Thread_Initialize(
    &_ITRON_Task_Information,
    the_thread,
    NULL,
    pk_ctsk->stksz,
 #if ( CPU_HARDWARE_FP == TRUE ) || ( CPU_SOFTWARE_FP == TRUE )
    TRUE,          /* XXX - All tasks FP (if the HW supports it) for now */
 #else
    FALSE,
 #endif
    core_priority,
    TRUE,        /* preemptible */
    THREAD_CPU_BUDGET_ALGORITHM_EXHAUST_TIMESLICE,
    NULL,        /* no budget algorithm callout */
    0,
    name
  );
= RTEMS Library Build Support =


Throughout the RTEMS kernel, actions are taken to support floating point, if either software or hardware floating point is defined to be available '''at the time of compilation of the RTEMS libraries'''. For example, from {{{threaddispatch.c</core> (edited here for simplification):

 #if ( CPU_HARDWARE_FP == TRUE ) || ( CPU_SOFTWARE_FP == TRUE )
    if ( executing->fp_context != NULL )
      _Context_Save_fp( &executing->fp_context );
 #endif

    _Context_Switch( &executing->Registers, &heir->Registers );

 #if ( CPU_HARDWARE_FP == TRUE ) || ( CPU_SOFTWARE_FP == TRUE )
    if ( executing->fp_context != NULL )
      _Context_Restore_fp( &executing->fp_context );
 #endif

Where do these definitions of floating point support come from?
= BSP Support =

=  =Compiler Support==