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Using Vector Types
Vector types can be operated on as if they were scalars. They can have the standard arithmetic operators (* / ^ | & ~ + - [subtraction and unary minus]) applied to them, with exactly the expected effects. The segments of code in Listings 1 and 2 are semantically equivalent:
Listing 1 Traditional C scalar arithmetic.
int foo[4] = {1,5,7,9};
int bar[4] = {2,3,4,5};
for(unsigned int i=0 ; i<4 ; i++)
{
bar[i] += foo[i];
}
Listing 2 GCC vector arithmetic.
typedef int v4si __attribute__ ((vector_size (4*sizeof(int))));
v4si foo = {1,5,7,9};
v4si bar = {2,3,4,5};
bar += foo;
The version in Listing 1 uses traditional C scalar arithmetic. Listing 2 uses GCC vector arithmetic, which offers several advantages:
- It’s easier for the compiler to generate vector instructions.
- It has fewer lines of code, which typically translates to fewer bugs.
- It better expresses what’s going on algorithmically.
The third advantage is possibly the most important—someone reading the code can easily see in Listing 2 that the two values are being added. Reading the example in Listing 1 takes a little more effort to extract this information.