Re: [boost] [math] Summer of Code

From: Paul Baxter (pauljbaxter_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-04-23 17:21:37

> I'm very interested in the SIMD part. What functions of the math
> toolkit would be targeted? Also, will this project create facilities
> that I can use SIMD hardware with my own calculations? For example, I
> would very much like to do ray/box intersection tests by using SSE.
> Would that be possible after the SOC?
>
> This project might be of interest to you, in case you didn't know about 
> it:
>
> http://www.pixelglow.com/macstl/

Glen Low at PixelGlow was very positive and proactive with macstl (smart 
cookie!) but sadly didn't get as much interest and commercial support as he 
needed to put bread on the table.

I found MacSTL reasonably good but not that well supported on x86 (much 
better on Altivec). Glen was a little prone to hyperbole in some of his 
speedup claims. I also found that the Intel compiler was reasonably good at 
optimising C (gulp) code to achieve the same sorts of speeds (particularly 
relevant for complex numbers which are hopelessly SIMD optimised in C++ by 
Intel).

Perhaps also take a look at www.codesourcery.com and their VSIPL++ option. 
It uses expression templates to coalesce sequences of ops and makes use of 
SIMD operations and also utilises underlying vector libs if available but as 
with macstl, has a more restrictive license.

I think at one point GIL and VSIPL++ almost intersected with some interest 
by someone at codesourcery in providing interfaces into GIL.