[Numpy-discussion] performance problem

[Travis Oliphant]

Gerard Vermeulen wrote:

>0.9.5.2021
>  
>
>>>>t1 = Timer('a <<= 8', 'import numarray as NX; a = NX.ones(10**6, NX.UInt32)')
>>>>t2 = Timer('a <<= 8', 'import numpy as NX; a = NX.ones(10**6, NX.UInt32)')
>>>>t1.timeit(100)
>>>>        
>>>>
>0.21813011169433594
>  
>
>>>>t2.timeit(100)
>>>>        
>>>>
>1.1523458957672119
>  
>
While ultimately, this slow-down was related to a coercion issue, I did 
still wonder about the extra dereference in the 1-d loop when one of the 
inputs is a scalar.  So, I added a patch that checks for that case and 
defines a different loop.

It seemed to give a small performance boost on my system.  I'm wondering 
if such special-case coding is wise in general.  Are there other ways to 
get C-compilers to produce faster code on modern machines?

-Travis