writing python extensions in assembly

[Diez B. Roggisch]

> Also, from the gcc manpage, apparently 387 is the default when
> compiling for 32 bit architectures, and using sse instructions is
> default on x86-64 architectures, but you can use -march=(some
> architecture with simd instructions), -msse, -msse2, -msse3, or
> -mfpmath=(one of 387, sse, or sse,387) to get the compiler to use
> them.
> 
> As long as we're talking about compilers and such... anybody want to
> chip in how this works in Python bytecode or what the bytecode
> interpreter does?  Okay, wait, before anybody says that's
> implementation-dependent: does anybody want to chip in what the
> CPython implementation does?  (or any other implementation they're
> familiar with, I guess)

There isn't anything in (C)Python aware of these architecture extensions 
- unless 3rd-party-libs utilize it. The bytecode-interpreter is machine 
and os-independent. So it's above that level anyway. And AFAIK all 
mathematical functionality is the one exposed by the OS math-libs.

Having said that, there are of course libs like NumPy that do take 
advantage of these architectures, through the use of e.g. lib atlas.

Diez