[Numpy-discussion] Objected-oriented SIMD API for Numpy

[Robert Kern]

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 22:32, Mathieu Blondel <mathieu at mblondel.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Sturla Molden <sturla at molden.no> wrote:
>> Mathieu Blondel skrev:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> About one year ago, a high-level, objected-oriented SIMD API was added
>>> to Mono. For example, there is a class Vector4f for vectors of 4
>>> floats and this class implements methods such as basic operators,
>>> bitwise operators, comparison operators, min, max, sqrt, shuffle
>>> directly using SIMD operations.
>> I think you are confusing SIMD with Intel's MMX/SSE instruction set.
>
> OK, I should have said "Object-oriented SIMD API that is implemented
> using hardware SIMD instructions".

No, I think you're right. Using "SIMD" to refer to numpy-like
operations is an abuse of the term not supported by any outside
community that I am aware of. Everyone else uses "SIMD" to describe
hardware instructions, not the application of a single syntactical
element of a high level language to a non-trivial data structure
containing lots of atomic data elements.

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
  -- Umberto Eco