If the only things we are generating code for is the i.MX31, i.MX35, I.MX53 - -
Then I guess we don't need to be concerned about running the stuff on ARM arch's other than ARMv6 and ARMv7.
The (-d16) uses half-wide registers as pairs.
I still haven't found what that 'l' of the ARMv6l and ARMv7l arch is - the only hint is about the "(l)ight FPU silicon". (Takes more FPU cycles than the "full" silicon.)
On my "to do list" is some small diagnostic things that would tell us exactly which core variation that Freescale licensed. Just haven't had enough of a pressing need to know.
So for now - assuming 16bit register pairs should be the "safe course" .
(Plus it lets us borrow from the Ubuntu-Core project.
)