The C calling convention for powerpc64 and powerpc64le require simple integer types to be zero or sign extended to 64 bit. The PPC NCG assumes that all values have been promoted to word size but now we introduced integer operations on smaller than machine word size and in general we cannot assume that values have been promoted anymore.

When a value is not promoted and passed to a foreign function on the stack that value will be in the wrong position within the stack slot on big endian systems and the function will deliver wrong results. On little endian systems we still get correct results as long as we stay in the smaller integer range.