Hi everyone, So unless anyone has any objections, I would like to start experimenting to implement a feature that allows for per-type data alignment. The main purpose for this is to better support x86-64 SIMD extensions, where aligned data is far faster to process. While there is a compiler directive that enforces byte alignment, this risks causing conflicts with third party units and is a bit much of a demand for a programmer wishing to use an SIMD-tuned unit, say.
Bug/feature details: https://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=32780 The format would be as follows: type TypeName = TypeInfo [align ByteAmount]; The syntax for declaring a type is exactly the same, with a new optional "align" keyword before the terminating semicolon. "ByteAmount" has to be a power of 2, which I will probably limit to 128 currently, just so it doesn't cause ridiculous or malicious memory usage. There will probably have to be a minimum alignment as well, although this will probably just be automatically enforced (e.g. Single is always aligned on a 4-byte boundary minimum). The intention here is that this feature will be a stepping stone for properly supporting vectorisation, implementing some form of the "M128" and "M256" types, and the "vectorcall" compiler directive for Windows. Gareth aka. Kit _______________________________________________ fpc-devel maillist - fpc-devel@lists.freepascal.org http://lists.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fpc-devel
