Sylpheed/tools/ppc-manual/memory/lvx.md

lvx — Load Vector Indexed

Category: Memory · Form: X · Opcode: 0x7c0000ce

Assembler Mnemonics

Mnemonic	XML entry	Flags	Description
lvx	lvx	—	Load Vector Indexed
lvx128	lvx128	—	Load Vector Indexed 128

Syntax

lvx [VD], [RA0], [RB]
lvx128 [VD], [RA0], [RB]

Encoding

lvx — form X

• Opcode word: 0x7c0000ce
• Primary opcode (bits 0–5): 31
• Extended opcode: 103
• Synchronising: no

Bits	Field	Meaning
0–5	OPCD	primary opcode
6–10	RT/FRT/VRT	destination
11–15	RA/FRA/VRA	source A
16–20	RB/FRB/VRB	source B
21–30	XO	extended opcode (10 bits)
31	Rc	record-form flag

lvx128 — form VX128_1

• Opcode word: 0x100000c3
• Primary opcode (bits 0–5): 4
• Extended opcode: 195
• Synchronising: no

Bits	Field	Meaning
0–5	OPCD	primary opcode (4)
6–10	VD128l	destination low 5 bits
11–15	RA	address register
16–20	RB	offset register
21–27	XO	extended opcode
28–29	VD128h	destination high 2 bits
30–31	—	reserved

Operands

Field	Role	Description
RA0	lvx: read; lvx128: read	Source GPR; when the encoded register number is 0 the operand is the literal 64-bit zero, not r0.
RB	lvx: read; lvx128: read	Source GPR.
VD	lvx: write; lvx128: write	Destination vector register.

Register Effects

lvx

• Reads (always): RA0, RB
• Reads (conditional): none
• Writes (always): VD
• Writes (conditional): none

lvx128

• Reads (always): RA0, RB
• Reads (conditional): none
• Writes (always): VD
• Writes (conditional): none

Status-Register Effects

No condition-register or status-register effects.

Operation (pseudocode)

EA <- ((RA|0) + (RB)) & ~0xF           ; align to 16
VD <- byteswap(MEM(EA, 16))

C Translation Example

/* lvx VD, RA, RB — 16-byte aligned load of a vector register      */
uint64_t base = (insn.RA == 0) ? 0 : r[insn.RA];
uint32_t ea   = (uint32_t)((base + r[insn.RB]) & ~(uint64_t)0xF);
v[insn.VD]    = mem_read_vec128_be(ea);

Implementation References

lvx

• Canary XML: tools/ppc-instructions.xml — search for mnem="lvx"
• Canary emitter: src/xenia/cpu/ppc/ppc_emit_altivec.cc:139
• Sylpheed opcode: crates/sylpheed-ppc/src/opcode.rs:152
• Sylpheed decoder: crates/sylpheed-ppc/src/decoder.rs:890

Canary emitter (frozen snapshot @ f21ebd49e9)

int InstrEmit_lvx(PPCHIRBuilder& f, const InstrData& i) {
  return InstrEmit_lvx_(f, i, i.X.RT, i.X.RA, i.X.RB);
}

// ── delegates to (src/xenia/cpu/ppc/ppc_emit_altivec.cc:133) ──
int InstrEmit_lvx_(PPCHIRBuilder& f, const InstrData& i, uint32_t vd,
                   uint32_t ra, uint32_t rb) {
  Value* ea = f.And(CalculateEA_0(f, ra, rb), f.LoadConstantInt64(~0xFull));
  f.StoreVR(vd, f.ByteSwap(f.Load(ea, VEC128_TYPE)));
  return 0;
}

lvx128

• Canary XML: tools/ppc-instructions.xml — search for mnem="lvx128"
• Canary emitter: src/xenia/cpu/ppc/ppc_emit_altivec.cc:142
• Sylpheed opcode: crates/sylpheed-ppc/src/opcode.rs:153
• Sylpheed decoder: crates/sylpheed-ppc/src/decoder.rs:530

Canary emitter (frozen snapshot @ f21ebd49e9)

int InstrEmit_lvx128(PPCHIRBuilder& f, const InstrData& i) {
  return InstrEmit_lvx_(f, i, VX128_1_VD128, i.VX128_1.RA, i.VX128_1.RB);
}

// ── delegates to (src/xenia/cpu/ppc/ppc_emit_altivec.cc:133) ──
int InstrEmit_lvx_(PPCHIRBuilder& f, const InstrData& i, uint32_t vd,
                   uint32_t ra, uint32_t rb) {
  Value* ea = f.And(CalculateEA_0(f, ra, rb), f.LoadConstantInt64(~0xFull));
  f.StoreVR(vd, f.ByteSwap(f.Load(ea, VEC128_TYPE)));
  return 0;
}

Special Cases & Edge Conditions

• Alignment is forced, not checked. The low four bits of the effective address are cleared before the load — passing an unaligned EA silently reads from EA & ~0xF rather than trapping. This differs from scalar loads (no alignment enforcement) and from lvewx etc. (which architecturally use the exact EA for lane placement).
• Big-endian lane layout. The byte at the aligned base goes into vector lane 0 (most-significant byte); the byte at base+15 lands in lane 15. On little-endian hosts the 16-byte block is byte-swapped at the memory boundary so the PowerPC-visible layout is preserved.
• RA0 semantics. When RA = 0, the base is the literal zero. Combined with the alignment mask this lets lvx VD, 0, RB load from RB & ~0xF.
• No update form. Unlike scalar loads, VMX loads have no u variant that post-writes the base. Use lvxl for the cache-hint variant ("last" — the line is not expected to be reused soon).
• VMX128 sibling (lvx128). Identical semantics; the only difference is the operand encoding. VMX128 uses a 7-bit register index split across three non-contiguous bit fields (VD128l ‖ VD128h), addressing v0..v127.
• Atomic 16 bytes. The read is a single conceptual load; observers see either all 16 old bytes or all 16 new bytes (to the extent the surrounding cache coherency model allows).
• Cache-line behaviour. A 16-byte aligned load fits within one Xenon 128-byte cache line; cold-line cost is one fill.

Related Instructions

• stvx, stvx128 — the store counterparts.
• lvxl, lvxl128 — cache-hint "last-use" load variants.
• lvebx, lvehx, lvewx — single-element loads at the exact (sub-aligned) address.
• lvlx, lvrx — load-left / load-right for unaligned vector I/O (combine to read across alignment).

IBM Reference

• AIX 7.3 — lvx (Load Vector Indexed)
• PowerISA v2.07B Book I "Vector Facility" for full vector-load semantics; lvx128 is documented in the Xbox 360 XDK.