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Sylpheed/tools/ppc-manual/vmx/vrlb.md
MechaCat02 10dc260f0c chore(tools): adopt the PPC manual and a canary launcher that works anywhere
CONSOLIDATION.md Phase 6. Both lived untracked in the project root -- on one
disk, backed up by nothing.

  tools/ppc-manual/   393 files, 3.7 MB. 455 instructions, 350 family pages,
                      598 mnemonics resolvable through index.json, plus the
                      generator that produced them.
  tools/run-canary.sh the oracle launcher.

🔴 THE LAUNCHER WAS BROKEN IN TWO WAYS AND IS REWRITTEN, not copied:

  * it pointed at `xenia-rs/sylpheed.iso`, a SYMLINK. Wine cannot resolve one
    and says "path invalid", which reads as a corrupt image rather than a path
    problem -- it has cost a session before. It now points at the real file and
    warns if handed a symlink.
  * it hardcoded one machine's absolute paths, and named `xenia-rs`, which this
    consolidation retires. Now derived from the script's own location, with
    SYLPH_CANARY_BIN / SYLPH_ISO overrides and a check that each exists.

The standing constraints are in its header where someone will read them: one
emulator at a time, Canary runs MUTED, and never judge a crash or a hang from
a Bash-launched run -- a SIGKILL that looked like the binary was the editor's
process supervisor.

⚠️ The manual's GENERATOR reads the xenia-rs source tree, which is going away.
Its decoder now lives here as crates/sylpheed-ppc, so the generator must be
repointed before it is run again. Recorded in the README rather than left for
someone to discover; the manual's content is checked in and regenerates from
nothing implicitly.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-09-13 21:18:00 +02:00

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vrlb — Vector Rotate Left Integer Byte

Category: VMX (Altivec) · Form: VX · Opcode: 0x10000004

Assembler Mnemonics

Mnemonic XML entry Flags Description
vrlb vrlb — Vector Rotate Left Integer Byte

Syntax

vrlb [VD], [VA], [VB]

Encoding

vrlb — form VX

  • Opcode word: 0x10000004
  • Primary opcode (bits 0–5): 4
  • Extended opcode: 4
  • Synchronising: no
Bits Field Meaning
0–5 OPCD primary opcode (4)
6–10 VRT/VD destination vector register
11–15 VRA/VA source A vector register
16–20 VRB/VB source B vector register
21–31 XO extended opcode (11 bits)

Operands

Field Role Description
VA vrlb: read Source A vector register.
VB vrlb: read Source B vector register.
VD vrlb: write Destination vector register.

Register Effects

vrlb

  • Reads (always): VA, VB
  • Reads (conditional): none
  • Writes (always): VD
  • Writes (conditional): none

Status-Register Effects

No condition-register or status-register effects.

Operation (pseudocode)

; Pseudocode derives directly from the xenia-rs interpreter
; arm (see Implementation References). Operation semantics:
;   - Read source operands from the fields listed under Operands.
;   - Apply the arithmetic / logical / memory action described
;     in the Description field above.
;   - Write results to the destination register(s); update any
;     status bits enumerated under Status-Register Effects.
; Consult the IBM AIX reference link under IBM Reference for
; canonical PPC-style pseudocode where xenia's expression is
; terse.

C Translation Example

/* C translation: the xenia-rs interpreter arm below in           */
/* Implementation References is the authoritative semantic        */
/* snapshot. Translate it line-by-line:                            */
/*   - ctx.gpr[N]  -> r[N]       (or f[]/v[] for FPRs/VRs)        */
/*   - mem.read_u*/write_u* -> mem_read_u*_be / mem_write_u*_be   */
/*   - ctx.update_cr_signed(fld, v) -> update_cr_signed(fld, v)   */
/*   - ctx.xer_ca / xer_ov / xer_so -> xer.CA / xer.OV / xer.SO   */
/* The Register Effects and Status-Register Effects tables above  */
/* enumerate every side effect a faithful translation must emit.  */

Implementation References

vrlb

xenia-rs interpreter body (frozen snapshot)
        PpcOpcode::vrlb => {
            let a = ctx.vr[instr.ra()].as_bytes();
            let b = ctx.vr[instr.rb()].as_bytes();
            let mut r = [0u8; 16];
            for i in 0..16 { r[i] = a[i].rotate_left((b[i] & 7) as u32); }
            ctx.vr[instr.rd()] = xenia_types::Vec128::from_bytes(r);
            ctx.pc += 4;
        }

Special Cases & Edge Conditions

  • Per-lane left-rotate of bytes. For each of the 16 byte lanes, VD.b[i] = rotate_left(VA.b[i], VB.b[i] & 7). The low 3 bits of each shift-count byte are used; upper bits are ignored.
  • Shift counts are per-lane, not scalar. Unlike most CPUs' vector rotate, Altivec's shift/rotate takes a whole vector as the shift-count. If you want a uniform rotate, splat first with vspltb.
  • Big-endian byte lanes. VA.b[0] is the most significant byte.
  • No overflow, no sticky saturation. Rotation is information-preserving.
  • No Rc, no XER, no VSCR side-effect.
  • No VMX128 sibling. Xenon software that needs per-byte rotation typically uses vrlw on pre-swizzled data.
  • vrlh, vrlw — half-word / word rotates (same "per-lane rotate count" pattern).
  • vslb, vsrb, vsrab — byte shift-left / logical-right / arithmetic-right.
  • vsl, vsr, vslo, vsro — whole-register shifts.
  • vspltb — splat to build a uniform shift-count vector.

IBM Reference