Assembler Warning: Additional NOP may be necessary to workaround Itanium processor A/B step errata

[Anton Shterenlikht]

On Wed, Aug 05, 2009 at 04:13:46PM +0100, Anton Shterenlikht wrote:
> ia64 SMP 8.0-beta2
> building port graphics/ImageMagick
> I see these warnings repeated quite often:
> 
> {standard input}: Assembler messages:
> {standard input}:4334: Warning: Additional NOP may be necessary to workaround It
> anium processor A/B step errata
> 
> in this context:
> 
> ...
> 
> mv -f coders/.deps/coders_preview_la-preview.Tpo coders/.deps/coders_preview_la-
> preview.Plo^M
> /bin/sh ./libtool --silent  --tag=CC   --mode=compile cc -std=gnu99 -DHAVE_CONFI
> G_H -I. -I./config   -I/usr/local/include/freetype2 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/
> local/include -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/libxml2  -I/usr/local/in
> clude/lqr-1 -I/usr/local/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/local/lib/glib-2.0/include -O2
> -pipe -I/usr/local/include/graphviz -fno-strict-aliasing -Wall -W -MT coders/cod
> ers_ps_la-ps.lo -MD -MP -MF coders/.deps/coders_ps_la-ps.Tpo -c -o coders/coders
> _ps_la-ps.lo `test -f 'coders/ps.c' || echo './'`coders/ps.c^M
> {standard input}: Assembler messages:^M
> {standard input}:4334: Warning: Additional NOP may be necessary to workaround It
> anium processor A/B step errata^M
> 
> ...
> 
> mv -f magick/.deps/magick_libMagickCore_la-colorspace.Tpo magick/.deps/magick_li
> bMagickCore_la-colorspace.Plo^M
> /bin/sh ./libtool --silent  --tag=CC   --mode=compile cc -std=gnu99 -DHAVE_CONFI
> G_H -I. -I./config  -I./ltdl -I./ltdl  -I/usr/local/include/freetype2 -I/usr/loc
> al/include -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/libxml
> 2  -I/usr/local/include/lqr-1 -I/usr/local/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/local/lib/gli
> b-2.0/include -O2 -pipe -I/usr/local/include/graphviz -fno-strict-aliasing -Wall
>  -W -MT magick/magick_libMagickCore_la-composite.lo -MD -MP -MF magick/.deps/mag
> ick_libMagickCore_la-composite.Tpo -c -o magick/magick_libMagickCore_la-composit
> e.lo `test -f 'magick/composite.c' || echo './'`magick/composite.c^M
> magick/composite.c: In function 'CompositeImageChannel':^M
> magick/composite.c:1307: warning: suggest explicit braces to avoid ambiguous 'el
> se'^M
> {standard input}: Assembler messages:^M
> {standard input}:7404: Warning: Additional NOP may be necessary to workaround It
> anium processor A/B step errata^M
> {standard input}:10430: Warning: Additional NOP may be necessary to workaround I
> tanium processor A/B step errata^M
> {standard input}:13151: Warning: Additional NOP may be necessary to workaround I
> tanium processor A/B step errata^M
> 
> 
> I wonder if these are indicative of some serious issue?

I've also seen this warning issued during build of other ports, e.g.
science/paraview and math/vtk5

I did some search and mostly people seem to think this is a "benign"
message. Can somebody comment on this?

-- 
Anton Shterenlikht
Room 2.6, Queen's Building
Mech Eng Dept
Bristol University
University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK
Tel: +44 (0)117 928 8233 
Fax: +44 (0)117 929 4423