[LAD] vectorization

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Thu, 2008-04-17 at 19:31 +0200, Jens M Andreasen wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-04-17 at 19:02 +0200, Mario Lang wrote:
> 
> > No.  If you optimize code, you will only have to special case
> > a few routines.  The greater hunk of the code will stay the same on different
> > variants.  So you do not want to precompile binary packages for
> > all sorts of special CPU types and feature, that would result in
> > a huge amount of data.
> 
> Look here:
> 
> ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/Linux/distributions/Mandriva/official/current
> 
> Up to higher level directory
> SRPMS  09/18/2007 12:00:00 AM 
> i586   04/10/2008 12:21:00 AM 
> x86_64 04/10/2008 12:21:00 AM
> 
> Here is at least two separate identical distributions of the Intel
> "architecture", so it can be done and has happened.

The difference you point out has _nothing_ to do with optimization and
is unavoidable for now. 

That is the choice between a 32 bit operating system and a 64 bit
operating system (on both Intel and AMD architectures). Eventually 32
bit systems will die of old age as _all_ programs run fine on 64 bits
and that directory will be erased. 

Distributions and packagers will surely make a big party when that
happens. 

-- Fernando


> Perhaps x86_64 will be fine-grained enough to define a pleasant platform
> seen from an audio developers perspective? Which means death to sse,
> long live sse3! :-D
> 
> IIRC the current celeron 540M should fit the definition for a low cost
> alternative.
>  
> > I am still convinced that runtime detection is a much more sensible solution.