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Subject: Re: Bitscan Conclusions

Author: Matt Taylor

Date: 14:37:29 01/05/03

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On January 05, 2003 at 17:25:48, Alessandro Damiani wrote:

>On January 05, 2003 at 16:19:21, Matt Taylor wrote:
>
>>There is truly nothing that could waste more time than trying to write -the-
>>most optimal routine possible, but this has been much fun for me. I am using a
>>tool now to read exact cycle counts for the AMD Athlon (K7) processor.
>>
>>I have some insight now into the bsf instruction and its implementation on
>>different processors. The P5 (Pentium) and K6 processors both use microcode
>>loops, I believe. Not completely sure, but the timings would imply it as they
>>depend on the value of the operand. The P6 (PPro/Pentium 2/Pentium 3) implements
>>bsf/bsr with a priority encoder, which is why they are fast. The K7 (Athlon)
>>uses a binary search algorithm in microcode. I would presume the P7 is similar.
>>
>>Someone had posed the question, "How will Hammer's bsf instruction fare?" The
>>answer is that it will be at most 1 cycle slower than the K7's bsf assuming it
>>is implemented the same way.
>>
>>I am finishing up optimizing some of the proposed routines for Athlon. The bsf
>>routine takes something like 13-21 cycles depending on which word the bit lies
>>in. My favorite routine (binary search) optimized currently runs 15 cycles. I
>>think I can get yet another cycle or two back from it. Chances are that it will
>>run about as fast as the bsf instruction on Hammer. The difference is that it
>>costs almost 128 bytes and 4 registers instead of 3 bytes and 1 register.
>>
>>Anyone interested in the final results can e-mail me for the optimized routines.
>>The link I posted a while ago is no longer valid as I will be switching ISPs
>>early next week.
>>
>>-Matt
>
>Interesting stuff! I am especially interested in the comparison between Intel
>and AMD concerning bsf/bsr. I have got a Pentium 2.
>
>Alessandro

bsf/bsr are 2 cycles on P6-core processors. This includes Pentium Pro, Pentium
2, Pentium 3, and old Celerons. The result is that a 64-bit bitscan routine
takes ~7-8 cycles whereas it takes ~21 cycles on Athlon (K7). The routine I've
been optimizing is now 14 cycles. This means that a 2 GHz Athlon (AthlonXP 2400)
will run an Athlon-optimized bitscan routine at the same speed that a 1 GHz
Pentium 3 will run the bsf version. The Hammer will do 64-bit natively, and the
bsf routine on Hammer will probably take about 10 cycles.

-Matt



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