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Written by Dave Thorup
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Tuesday, 28 March 2006 |
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OK, GCC instruction scheduling and register usage is retarded. I've got a nice big, complex Altivec function that I've been optimizing and the biggest problem I've had with it is running out of registers. I was using around 31-32 and GCC was spilling registers left and right. So I've been reducing the register usage to try and fix this. I can count the maximum number of registers that should be used and it's well under 32, it's more like 23-25. And a good compiler should be able to reduce that number even further. But even after reducing the number of registers used to 23-25 GCC was still spilling registers like crazy. So I happened to see a post by Sanjay Patel on the Altivec mailing list about some GCC compiler options that you can use for hand-tuned code: -fno-schedule-insns -fno-schedule-insns2 I found a PPCZone forum thread about these options as well. Sure enough if I use these options then I don't have any problems with registers spilling onto the stack. So why is GCC so retarded when these options aren't used!? The problem is that these options basically disable any optimized instruction scheduling that GCC might try to do. For hand-tuned Altivec code this is fine, but for generic scalar code it's usually bad. Since the file that my Altivec code is in has both generic scalar code & hand-tuned Altivec code I'm not sure if using these compiler options is a good thing overall. Why can't GCC just do the right thing in the first place and not be so damn retarded!? PS - I should mention that I'm still using GCC 3.3. =( I'm hoping to be able to start using GCC 4 soon so I'll have to see if it's any less retarded than GCC 3.3.  Be first to comment this article |  Add as favourites (235) |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 3388
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Written by Dave Thorup
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Thursday, 16 March 2006 |
Well, it's being widely reported that someone has figured out how to get Windows XP running on an Intel Mac. Yawn. If you want to run Windows, why not just buy a PC? Okay, okay, so Mac users do have to run Windows apps every now and then.
Anyway, as far as I can tell the only real reason why you'd want to dual-boot a Mac with Windows and Mac OS X is to play games. Other than that, this is really just a good temporary solution for people that need to run Windows applications every now and then. For those people a better solution would be VirtualPC or VMWare so that they can run Windows side by side with Mac OS X. That would be a much better solution in the long run.
Games require graphics acceleration from the video card though. So a virtual solution (VirtualPC or VMWare) still doesn't work well for games. For that you really need to be able to dual-boot. The problem though, is that, at least right now, there is no video acceleration on the Intel Macs when run under WinXP. Yes, the video card is likely just a standard ATI X1600, but from all of the reports I've read so far the driver isn't being loaded for it. Maybe this is a simple fix and maybe it isn't. But at least for now, the Intel Macs won't be great for gaming under Windows.
In the mean time, I've got my XBox and Halo 2. :)
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Last Updated ( Monday, 01 May 2006 )
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Written by Dave Thorup
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Saturday, 11 March 2006 |
Greens isn't food. Greens is what food eats!
Today we had some of the department heads from Japan visit for meetings and interviews. For dinner we took them out to a Brazilian BBQ place called Greenfields, a.k.a. "Meat on a Stick", or as John more appropriately put it - "Meat on a Sword." For those familiar with Tucanos or the Rodizio Grill then you know what I'm talking about.
I really love these places. In fact, the last time I was in Utah I insisted on eating at the Rodizio Grill because I hadn't found any place like it in New York yet. Anyway, it also seems that I tend to eat the most whenever I go to these places and tonight was no exception. There's just something about all-you-can-eat meat that I just can't pass up.
At the end of the night it looks like I tied with Keita, one of our managers from Japan, for being the biggest eater. I only wish they had grilled pineapple at this place, that's one of my favorites... Mmmm, grilled pineapple.... aaaaaggghhhhhh
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Last Updated ( Monday, 01 May 2006 )
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Written by Dave Thorup
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Saturday, 11 March 2006 |
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OK, so far the site is just hideous. Right now I'm really limited in what I can do with it, but that will change in the future. So far I've got some nice trees up under the title, a pic of me and one from Yellowstone. The next thing to do is design some artwork I think. What exactly is a Cutterpillow though? I guess I'll figure it out eventually. For now I'll just stick with some good looking pictures. There's just one problem with that though, the site layout builder doesn't let me change the size of the images for the title background and the corner image. I don't know why this is, but I won't be using the stupid site builder for too much longer. But for now, this is what I have to live with. Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (175) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 2414 |
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Written by Dave Thorup
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Thursday, 09 March 2006 |
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Cutterpillow.com - infested with jello like fishes no melotron wishes Welcome to Cutterpillow, my slice of the web. It's not much to look at now, but be patient and it'll grow. the cat and the pillow and the jello like fishes Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (174) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 2538 |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 11 April 2006 )
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