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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cirruslvr who wrote (82981)	12/14/1999 9:43:00 PM
From: Elmer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572505

Re: "Isn't it some kind of SPEC rule that the compiler has to be available or something like that? I think someone mentioned that once. " I remember something about it having to be available in 3 months. Not sure though. EP

To: Cirruslvr who wrote (82981)	12/15/1999 12:37:00 AM
From: Petz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572505

Cirruslvr and Elmer, re:<speculation on prefetch compiler compatability> Elmer - RE: "Do you think the code might test the processor ID and only use prefetch if it's a genuine Intel processor?" Pre-fetch is not just CPU-dependant, its also platform dependant. In other words, the prefetch instructions for an i820/RAMBUS platform which allows SPECint to gain 20% might only add 5% to the performance of a BX/SDRAM platform. BTW, this is why in the real world, prefetch, general enought to optimize all platforms for a specific CPU, will never cause a 20% speedup like it does for SPECint. Most probably, the Intel compiler must be told which platform and which CPU it should compile for, and then it generates a binary which is optimized for that platform. Although there is some commonality between extended 3DNow and SSE, chances are very high that the code for a Coppermine would crash on the Athlon. RAMBUS, because of its many simultaneous channels which can be open, requires a very sophisticated compiler for optimized code. Petz