WebAssembly / WebAssembly/half-precision

GC and on-stack equivalents of f32.load_f16 and f32.store_f16

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WebAssembly
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Description

Outside of the SIMD operations, the proposal includes two opcodes to read and write f32s to the linear memory as f16s. Languages that compile to WasmGC typically don't even allocate a memory at all. It would be quite inconvenient to allocate a 2-byte memory and read-write through it in order to manipulate f16 bits.

I propose to add at least an on-stack equivalent to these instructions, which is similar to the pairs f32.reinterpret_i32 f64.promote_f32 and f32.demote_f64 i32.reinterpret_f32:

  • f32.promote_f16_reinterpret_i32: [i32] -> [f32]
    extracts the 16 low-order bits of the input, reinterpret them as an f16, and promote that f16 value an f32.

  • i32.reinterpret_f16_demote_f32: [f32] -> [i32]
    demotes the input f32 into an f16, reinterpret it as an i16, and zero-extend it to an i32

One could argue that the above are the fundamental operations, and that the memory operations could be expressed in terms of them + i16 memory operations.

If not, then I propose we also bring WasmGC on par with the linear memory with appropriate struct. and array. operations:

  • struct.get_promote x y: [(ref null x)] -> [f32]: loads an i16 field, reinterpret as f16 and promote to f32
  • struct.set_demote x y: [(ref null x) f32] -> []: demotes to an f16, reinterpret as i16 and stores
  • Similarly for array.get_promote and array.set_demote.

Edit: alternative for WasmGC: just introduce f16 as a storagetype, but not as a full valtype (like i16). Then we can use the existing struct.get, struct.set, etc. instructions. This is probably a lot simpler.

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Begin with the proposed on-stack operations and the alternative f16 storage type described in the issue; compare their implications for WasmGC, linear memory, and existing struct/array instructions. Done means the proposal has a settled design for the required instructions or storage type and the corresponding behavior is specified.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
wasm
Domain
compilers
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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