2 replies to this topic

[oldgregg]

Hi guys, 

 

I'm currently writing an answer to a research question I've been set, However I've got to this particular question and I'm stumped!

 

'Take an example from a typical game situation, such as cloth simulation, and consider the application at instruction level using scalar assembler and vector assembler. Outline the benefits and limitations to the use of super-scalar assembler instructions.'

 

I'm not sure how to go about answering this. 

I myself am not very confident with assembler and as soon as this is posted I will be researching more into it however I was just wondering if anyone has any good resources I can read to better my knowledge, and perhaps save me time looking in the wrong places.

 

Even any possible answers to this, would be really beneficial.

Bullet point answers are fine, I can take that and research it further in order put create my essay.

 

 

Thanks.

 

[Yrjö P.]

How in-depth is this supposed to be? Are you expected to use an hour, a day, or a week on this? And how well are you expected to know assembler at this point?

Anyway, I don't know much assembler either, but to answer this on a superficial level you don't really need to.
- look at the relevant algorithm/situation (you mention cloth simulation, but if you have a choice, take a simpler particle system instead)
- on paper, roughly break it down to individual operations (multiplies, adds, ...)
- take some super-scalar instruction and figure out which steps you could replace with it
- look at the specs of some common core with that instruction; you want to know how many simple operations and how many of the new instructions it can carry out
- based on that, and your on-paper-optimized version of the algorithm, you can estimate the speedup

Edited by Stroppy Katamari, 29 December 2012 - 05:35 AM.

[Hodgman]

The question seems to be asking, "what's a practical application of SIMD?"