Re: libmoto PowerPC-optimized math library?
Quoting "C.M. Connelly" <c@eskimo.com>:
>
> My housemate was discussing compiler performance on the Darwin
> list yesterday, and wrote a couple of quick programs (in C) to get
> some numbers. (Someone had asked about the performance of code
> compiled with -O3 optimization under gcc versus code compiled with
> CodeWarrior.)
>
> We were surprised that the performance of our two PowerPC machines
> (a 132 MHz 604e PowerCenter and a 225 MHz 604e PowerTower Pro) was
> amazingly bad compared with that of our dual-Pentium 133 MHz
> machine (usually it's just the opposite).
>
> My housemate then did a search for ``PowerPC math library
> Motorola'', and found libmoto.a, an optimized math library created
> by Motorola back in 1996, and released under a free-as-in-beer
> license (only as object code, and with license restrictions on
> redistribution).
I found another from IBM this time:
http://www.rs6000.ibm.com/resource/technology/MASS/
I've not tested it whatsoever, so I don't know about performances, but they
contains a few functions not in libmoto.a
sqrt, rsqrt, exp, log, sin, cos, tan, atan, atan2, sinh, cosh,
tanh, dnint, x**y
<snip>
>
> The problem for Debian, of course, is the license and the lack of
> source code. Things have changed a lot since 1996, and I wonder
> if Motorola might be more sympathetic to the idea of opening up
> the source code for the libmoto. Ideally, the Motorola code could
> be integrated into the glibc math library, replacing the old,
> unoptimized functions.
Have you contacted them ? I think you would have better luck with IBM
open-sourcing their library, than Motorola. Please test the IBM lib, and tell us
your results.
/Hadess
http://hadess.net
Reply to: