Acolyte of the Butterfly
Posts: 104 from 2009/3/20
Quote:
Andreas_Wolf wrote:
Err, now that sounds like a contradiction to what you just wrote before. If POWER7 implements both VSX and AltiVec/VMX (separately), then it would mean that the latter is *not* automatically there by having the former implemented, i.e. a processor with VSX but *without* AltiVec/VMX compatibility would be technically possible (and conforming to Power ISA 2.06+).
Yes, you're right. The fact is that I'm confused myself. From the
doc I posted earlier (page 4):
Quote:
POWER7 continues to support VMX / Extends SIMD support with VSX
? 2 VSX units that can each handle 2 Double-Precision FP instructions
It's apparent that VSX is an extention of VMX. I got confused because those few times I read about VSX, I missed -or they omitted- VMX mentioned. And until now -that is until you made me read more about it :) - I thought they were distinctive units.
[ Edited by feanor on 2010/7/7 1:00 ]