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Re: Architecture Nomenclature



On Wed, 2010-04-28 at 00:32 +0200, Benjamin Drung wrote:
> 
> The best solution would be autodetection of SSE2 on runtime. That can
> be
> done with a few lines of code. 

You're right, that can indeed be done with a few lines of code. e.g.
cpuid instruction. The problem is that you then have to perform a branch
every time you could potentially use hardware acceleration: a condition
for when, say, SSE2 is available, and another for a generic
implementation.

It isn't ideal performance wise.

Perhaps for 32-bit x86 architectures where SIMD is required, I could
build the package for i686 and have it detect at runtime before said is
actually used, whether it is available or not. If it is not, raise a
user visible error and terminate.

This method assumes the user knows that it is only supported on P4 or
later generation of x86.

-- 
Kip Warner -- Software Engineer
OpenPGP encrypted/signed mail preferred
http://www.thevertigo.com

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