Intel will publish spec for Intel AVX at IDF in April: http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080317fact.htm?iid=pr1_releasepri_20080317fact
Intel AVX: The next step in the Intel instruction set -- Gelsinger also discussed Intel AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions) which, when used by software programmers, will increase performance in floating point, media, and processor intensive software. AVX can also increase energy efficiency, and is backwards compatible to existing Intel processors. Key features include wider vectors, increasing from 128 bit to 256 bit wide, resulting in up to 2x peak FLOPs output. Enhanced data rearrangement, resulting in allowing data to be pulled more efficiently, and three operand, non-destructive syntax for a range of benefits. We have been working on gcc infrastructure to support AVX, including stack alignment: http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches/2008-03/msg00869.html We will create an AVX branch after stack alignment has been resolved. H.J.
