Table of Contents
Advertisement
22007E/0—November 1999
Group I — Essential
Optimizations
Group II — Secondary
Optimizations
Top Optimizations
Top Optimizations
This chapter contains concise descriptions of the best
o p t i m i z a t i o n s fo r i m p rov i n g t h e p e r fo r m a n c e o f t h e
AMD Athlon™ processor. Subsequent chapters contain more
detailed descriptions of these and other optimizations. The
optimizations in this chapter are divided into two groups and
listed in order of importance.
Group I contains essential optimizations. Users should follow
these critical guidelines closely. The optimizations in Group I
are as follows:
Memory Size and Alignment Issues—Avoid memory size
mismatches—Align data where possible
Use
the
3DNow!™
Instructions
Select DirectPath Over VectorPath Instructions
G ro u p I I c o n t a i n s s e c o n d a ry o p t i m i z a t i o n s t h a t c a n
significantly improve the performance of the AMD Athlon
processor. The optimizations in Group II are as follows:
Load-Execute
instructions—Avoid load-execute floating-point instructions
with integer operands
Take Advantage of Write Combining
Use 3DNow! Instructions
Avoid Branches Dependent on Random Data
AMD Athlon™ Processor x86 Code Optimization
PREFETCH
Instruction
Usage—Use
2
and
PREFETCHW
Load-Execute
7
Advertisement
Table of Contents
Need help?
Do you have a question about the Athlon Processor x86 and is the answer not in the manual?
Questions and answers