http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=47975
--- Comment #2 from Richard Guenther <rguenth at gcc dot gnu.org> 2011-03-03 16:19:23 UTC --- We lower the vector - vector shift to <bb 2>: x.0_1 = x; x.1_2 = x; D.2689_4 = BIT_FIELD_REF <x.0_1, 128, 0>; D.2690_5 = BIT_FIELD_REF <x.1_2, 128, 0>; D.2691_6 = D.2689_4 << D.2690_5; D.2692_7 = BIT_FIELD_REF <x.0_1, 128, 128>; D.2693_8 = BIT_FIELD_REF <x.1_2, 128, 128>; D.2694_9 = D.2692_7 << D.2693_8; x.2_3 = {D.2691_6, D.2694_9}; x = x.2_3; return; but do not lower that shift further because type_for_widest_vector_mode calls optab_handler with ashl_optab which happens because in optab_for_tree_code we have case LSHIFT_EXPR: if (VECTOR_MODE_P (TYPE_MODE (type))) { if (subtype == optab_vector) return TYPE_SATURATING (type) ? NULL : vashl_optab; gcc_assert (subtype == optab_scalar); } if (TYPE_SATURATING(type)) return TYPE_UNSIGNED(type) ? usashl_optab : ssashl_optab; return ashl_optab; and we have ... #define TYPE_MODE(NODE) \ (TREE_CODE (TYPE_CHECK (NODE)) == VECTOR_TYPE \ ? vector_type_mode (NODE) : (NODE)->type.mode) which returns BLKmode instead of V8SImode. Bah to whoever introduced that hack to TYPE_MODE.