[comp.lang.apl] APL2 on IBM's vector processors

ned@h-three.UUCP (ned) (10/28/89)

I read an article in the Oct. 2 Computerworld that IBM has
added support to APL2 for their vector processors.  Does
anyone know anything about this?  I'd like to know what the
support is.  Is it embedded in the implementations of the
different primitive functions, or is it simply an auxiliary
processor or some other loosely coupled approach?

-- Ned		uunet!h-three!ned

raulmill@usc.edu (Raul Deluth Rockwell) (10/29/89)

;> I read an article in the Oct. 2 Computerworld that IBM has added
;> support to APL2 for their vector processors.  Does anyone know
;> anything about this?  I'd like to know what the support is.  Is it
;> embedded in the implementations of the different primitive
;> functions, or is it simply an auxiliary processor or some other
;> loosely coupled approach?

A number of primitives will use the vector processing facility (as
long as the arrays are large enough).  Also, some idioms are
recognized and dealt with specially.
--

ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu (L.J.Dickey) (10/31/89)

In article <RAULMILL.89Oct28181000@usc.edu> raulmill@usc.edu (Raul Deluth Rockwell) writes:

>A number of primitives will use the vector processing facility (as
>long as the arrays are large enough).  Also, some idioms are
>recognized and dealt with specially.

I have heard that code is included to to recognize when square roots
are called for, so that when, for example, an expression like

		A*.5

comes up, code for square roots is executed, rather than code for
exponentiation.  I guess this makes the results on the Harris benchmark
look better than it used to.

-- 
    L. J. Dickey, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Waterloo.
	ljdickey@water.UWaterloo.ca	ljdickey@water.BITNET
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	ljdickey@water.waterloo.edu