:local:
LLVM has two vectorizers: The :ref:`Loop Vectorizer <loop-vectorizer>`,
-which operates on Loops, and the :ref:`Basic Block Vectorizer
-<bb-vectorizer>`, which optimizes straight-line code. These vectorizers
+which operates on Loops, and the :ref:`SLP Vectorizer
+<slp-vectorizer>`. These vectorizers
focus on different optimization opportunities and use different techniques.
-The BB vectorizer merges multiple scalars that are found in the code into
-vectors while the Loop Vectorizer widens instructions in the original loop
-to operate on multiple consecutive loop iterations.
+The SLP vectorizer merges multiple scalars that are found in the code into
+vectors while the Loop Vectorizer widens instructions in loops
+to operate on multiple consecutive iterations.
.. _loop-vectorizer:
-----
LLVM's Loop Vectorizer is now enabled by default for -O3.
+We plan to enable parts of the Loop Vectorizer on -O2 and -Os in future releases.
The vectorizer can be disabled using the command line:
.. code-block:: console
-------
The goal of SLP vectorization (a.k.a. superword-level parallelism) is
-to combine similar independent instructions within simple control-flow regions
-into vector instructions. Memory accesses, arithemetic operations, comparison
-operations and some math functions can all be vectorized using this technique
-(subject to the capabilities of the target architecture).
+to combine similar independent instructions
+into vector instructions. Memory accesses, arithmetic operations, comparison
+operations, PHI-nodes, can all be vectorized using this technique.
For example, the following function performs very similar operations on its
inputs (a1, b1) and (a2, b2). The basic-block vectorizer may combine these
A[1] = a2*(a2 + b2)/b2 + 50*b2/a2;
}
+The SLP-vectorizer processes the code bottom-up, across basic blocks, in search of scalars to combine.
Usage
------
$ clang -fslp-vectorize file.c
-LLVM has a second phase basic block vectorization phase
+LLVM has a second basic block vectorization phase
which is more compile-time intensive (The BB vectorizer). This optimization
can be enabled through clang using the command line flag: