[Edu-sig] Knuth's books.

[Kirby Urner]

<<SNIP>>

> This knowledge, "what is costly," is hard-won and
> precious.  Nobody who "really knows" will divide if multiplication is
> "as easy", and the only way to understand why that is true is to
> understand what the machines do at their core (By the way, this is old-
> school knowledge -- circa 1975).  The current model is memory fetches
> and conditional code vs. pure ALU work.  It is now faster to multiply
> by 1 or 0 than to test for those cases and "blow the pipeline."
> 
> 
> --Scott David Daniels
> Scott.Daniels at Acm.Org

Thanks Scott.  I'm glad we have talented folk, such as yourself, optimizing
at this next-to-the-metal level (as well is in the metal itself).  We all
benefit from faster, cooler CPUs.  Brute force where there could have been
an elegant solution is ugly to contemplate when precious resources are at
stake.

Kirby
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