Writing the Fastest Code, by Hand, for Fun: A Human Computer Keeps Speeding Up Chips

The New York Times ^ | November 28, 2005 | JOHN MARKOFF

[beyond the sea]

Writing the Fastest Code

Where is the ASA pingeroo???

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Kazushige Goto's software runs many of the fastest supercomputers.

[Poser]

Wow! Somebody still cares about writing fast code that isn't bloated with crap. Well done!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

There is hope for us Humans.....

[ShadowAce]

[martin_fierro]

10 PRINT "That's cool!"
20 GOTO 10

[thoughtomator]

Applause due to a very aptly named fellow!

[antiRepublicrat]

The best was Slashdot's title for this -- "Goto Leads to Faster Code"

Well, it is funny if you're a programmer.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Assembler is faster!

You got to keep those compute loops in the cache.

Meanwhile just posted this:

CNET Prize Fight : AMD Dualcore vs Intel Duals ~ AMD wins all 7 categories

[Salo]

From my college days....(I think I remembered this right).

Q: If you use goto in you code you will receive...

A. Goto C
B. Goto E
C. Goto B
D. Goto F
E. Goto D
F. F.

[Buggman]

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of coffee that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains, the stains become a warning. It is by will alone I set my mind in motion."

[HAL9000]

Still, the Goto Basic Linear Algebra Subroutines, or BLAS, as his programs are known, were used by 4 of the world's 11 fastest computers.

BLAS is included with Mac OS X, and it runs fine on G4 and G5 PowerPC-based Macs, and the forthcoming Intel-Macs.

Most of the tricks Mr. Goto uses for writing high-performance code are described at developer.apple.com. Anyone who is experienced at writing assembler language code can probably figure this stuff out. Basically, you have to arrange the instructions to avoid stalling the processor, and use data streaming mode correctly.

[HAL9000]

Applause due to a very aptly named fellow!

Actually, avoiding GOTO or any other unnecessary branches is critical for performance. Unroll those loops!

[Marine_Uncle]

"There is hope for us Humans....."
And perhaps for some programmers also. Sad I am sitting next to two Linux based systems and don't even turn them on anymore. Mind has really gotten very lazy. Could be writting all kinds of stuff in C and it's assembler package. Seems like all I want to do is play first person shooters and fly missions over Iraq and bomb shit anymore!

[Marine_Uncle]

'10 PRINT "That's cool!" 20 GOTO 10'
Hey ya want to get extremly sophisticated try this....
10 goto 20 20 print "That's cool!"
Now there is some real handsome code.

[Poser]

10 Goto 10

Very fast code.

[Marine_Uncle]

"10 Goto 10 Very fast code."
Zooooooom.

[SunkenCiv]

Spaghetti code is my favorite kind, it has so many pastabilities.

[SunkenCiv]

Authoring Windows Applications In Assembly Language
Steve Gibson
http://www.grc.com/smgassembly.htm

Small Is Beautiful?
http://www.grc.com/files/sib.zip

Jon Kirwan's PC Assembly Programming
http://users.easystreet.com/jkirwan/pctools.html
http://users.easystreet.com/jkirwan/new/pctools.html