dear psychtoolbox users
http://arstechnica.com/cpu/01q2/p4andg4e/p4andg4e-1.html
i don't often look at such things, but here's a very good article on
processor architecture, comparing the latest intel and motorola
processors. nice for us, he begins by explaining the motorola G4e, which
i presume is used in current macs.
modern processors do lots of things that are quite weird, and i have the
feeling that when one is worried about achieving ultimate performance, it
can be helpful to have at least a rudidimentary understanding of what's
going on in there. for example, i learned in this article that the
compiler or user can insert some extra hint bits into conditional branch
instructions to tell the processor whether the branch will usually be
taken.
best
denis
p.s.
Thanks to Macintouch for the link.
http://arstechnica.com/cpu/01q2/p4andg4e/p4andg4e-1.html
i don't often look at such things, but here's a very good article on
processor architecture, comparing the latest intel and motorola
processors. nice for us, he begins by explaining the motorola G4e, which
i presume is used in current macs.
modern processors do lots of things that are quite weird, and i have the
feeling that when one is worried about achieving ultimate performance, it
can be helpful to have at least a rudidimentary understanding of what's
going on in there. for example, i learned in this article that the
compiler or user can insert some extra hint bits into conditional branch
instructions to tell the processor whether the branch will usually be
taken.
best
denis
p.s.
Thanks to Macintouch for the link.