The OpenD Programming Language

preferAthlon

Optimisation hints for assembly code.

For forward compatibility, the CPU is compared against different microarchitectures. For 32-bit x86, comparisons are made against the Intel PPro/PII/PIII/PM family.

The major 32-bit x86 microarchitecture 'dynasties' have been:

  • Intel P6 (PentiumPro, PII, PIII, PM, Core, Core2).
  • AMD Athlon (K7, K8, K10).
  • Intel NetBurst (Pentium 4, Pentium D).
  • In-order Pentium (Pentium1, PMMX, Atom)

Other early CPUs (Nx586, AMD K5, K6, Centaur C3, Transmeta, Cyrix, Rise) were mostly in-order.

Some new processors do not fit into the existing categories:

  • Intel Atom 230/330 (family 6, model 0x1C) is an in-order core.
  • Centaur Isiah = VIA Nano (family 6, model F) is an out-of-order core.

Within each dynasty, the optimisation techniques are largely identical (eg, use instruction pairing for group 4). Major instruction set improvements occur within each dynasty. Does this CPU perform better on AMD K7 code than PentiumPro..Core2 code?

@trusted nothrow @nogc @property pure
bool
preferAthlon
()

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