Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: Assembler handtuning benefit

Author: Bas Hamstra

Date: 05:43:43 11/11/97

Go up one level in this thread


On November 11, 1997 at 08:11:37, Jouni Uski wrote:

>Rebel, Genius and Fritz have written in assebler to get everything
>from prosessor speed. But why are Hiarcs (and possible Junior,
>Shredder etc.) better even if they are pure C programs? Is this
>handtuning totally waste of time or is Mark superior in comparison
>to assembler guys or what ?

Today's C (and C++) compilers optimize very well. So well in fact that
the executables run nearly as fast as the 100% assembler versions. To
quote a few reasonably experienced assembler programmers:

- Ed Schroder says highly optimized assembler gives at most 40% speed
increase in comparison to C

- Bruce Moreland said he got 0% (zero, BTW my experience also)

So let's say only 20% speed.

Then the same code can produce a special Pentium optimized 32 bits
executable by setting simply a compiler switch or using a different
compiler. If you coded your program in 16 bits assembler (Fritz/Genius)
it is not that easy.

So in C you are much more flexible at only very minor costs.



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.