Comment by jhallenworld

What if the multi-precision code is written in C?

You can detect carry of (a+b) in C branch-free with: ((a&b) | ((a|b) & ~(a+b))) >> 31

So 64-bit add in C is:

   f_low = a_low + b_low
   c_high = ((a_low & b_low) | ((a_low | b_low) & ~f_low)) >> 31
   f_high = a_high + b_high + c_high

So for RISC-V in gcc 8.2.0 with -O2 -S -c

        add     a1,a3,a2
        or      a5,a3,a2
        not     a7,a1
        and     a5,a5,a7
        and     a3,a3,a2
        or      a5,a5,a3
        srli    a5,a5,31
        add     a4,a4,a6
        add     a4,a4,a5

But for ARM I get (with gcc 9.3.1):

        add     ip, r2, r1
        orr     r3, r2, r1
        and     r1, r1, r2
        bic     r3, r3, ip
        orr     r3, r3, r1
        lsr     r3, r3, #31
        add     r2, r2, lr
        add     r2, r2, r3

It's shorter because ARM has bic. Neither one figures out to use carry related instructions.

Ah! But! There is a gcc macro: __builtin_uadd_overflow() that replaces the first two C lines above: c_high = __builtin_uadd_overflow(a_low, b_low, &f_low);

So with this:

RISC-V:

        add     a3,a4,a3
        sltu    a4,a3,a4
        add     a5,a5,a2
        add     a5,a5,a4

ARM:

        adds    r2, r3, r2
        movcs   r1, #1
        movcc   r1, #0
        add     r3, r3, ip
        add     r3, r3, r1

RISC-V is faster..

EDIT: CLANG has one better: __builtin_addc().

    f_low = __builtin_addcl(a_low, b_low, 0, &c);
    f_high = __builtin_addcl(a_high, b_high, c, &junk);

x86:

        addl    8(%rdi), %eax
        adcl    4(%rdi), %ecx

ARM:

        adds    w8, w8, w10
        add     w9, w11, w9
        cinc    w9, w9, hs

RISC-V:

        add     a1, a4, a5
        add     a6, a2, a3
        sltu    a2, a2, a3
        add     a6, a6, a2