25112 Rev. 3.06 September 2005

Software Optimization Guide for AMD64 Processors

3.3128-Bit Media Instructions and Floating-Point Operations

Optimization

Use 128-bit media (SSE and SSE2) instructions instead of x87 or 64-bit media (MMX™ and 3DNow!™ technology) instructions for floating-point operations.

Rationale

In 64-bit mode, the processor provides eight additional XMM registers (XMM8–XMM15) for a total of 16. These extra registers can substantially reduce register pressure in floating-point code written using 128-bit media instructions.

Although the processor fully supports the x87 and 64-bit media instructions, there are only eight registers available to these instructions (ST(0)–ST(7) or MMX0–MMX7, respectively).

Chapter 3

General 64-Bit Optimizations

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AMD 250 manual Bit Media Instructions and Floating-Point Operations, Optimization