Vectorisation Intrinsics for DMD?

Brad Roberts braddr at puremagic.com
Sun Feb 6 14:38:43 PST 2011


On 2/6/2011 11:48 AM, Walter Bright wrote:
> Peter Alexander wrote:
>> Is there any plan to add vectorisation intrinsics to DMD?
>>
>> I know that DMD generates vectorised instructions for array operations, but last time I checked, these were far from
>> optimal for aligned float[4] objects. In fact, it appears to generate a function call for all vector operations,
>> regardless of size or alignment.
>>
>> I believe that these intrinsics would be very beneficial to D, and this is because I believe that one of D's biggest
>> markets is indie game devs:
>>
>> - They need a really high performance language, but are tired of C++
>> - They are not held back by legacy code
>> - They are generally risk takers, so are willing to invest in new tech
>>
>> A lack on vector intrinsics in DMD gives them an extra reason to stick with C++.
> 
> I agree with everything you said. I think D's array op syntax form a sound basis for doing vector ops, and plan on doing
> them.

Also hinted at in the above list.. I'd really like to explore how to get some of the runtime library functions to be
inlineable.  There's a lot of small functions that ought to be eligible, if exposed to the compiler as a candidate.


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