4 – EXPLICIT VECTOR PROGRAMMING EXAMPLES

This section provides several explicit vector programming examples in C/C++ and Fortran. In practice, compilers may not vectorize loops when they are complex or have potential dependencies, even though the programmer is certain the loop will execute correctly as a vectorized loop. Sophisticated compilers can do runtime tests and multi-versioning for simple cases, but the code size and the compile time increase. The simd construct can be used to address these issues. Application programmers can use it to assure the compiler that the loop can be vectorized.

The example in listing 4.1 (written in both OpenMP C++ and Fortran) shows that *ioff is unknown at compile time, so the compiler has to assume *ioff could be either a negative or a positive integer value for each invocation of function star. Also the compiler does not know if a, b and c are aliased. For example, if a and c are aliased and *ioff = -2, then this loop has a loop-carried lexically backward dependency, so it is not vectorizable. However, if a programmer can guarantee *ioff is a positive integer, the loop can be vectorized even if a and c are aliased. The programmer can use a simd construct to guarantee this property.

  void star( double *a, double *b, double *c, int n, int *ioff ) {    <strong>#pragma omp simd</strong>    for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {      a[i] *= b[i] * c[i+ *ioff];    }  }

  subroutine star(a, b, c, n, ioff_ptr)    implicit none    double precision :: a(:),b(:),c(:)    integer          :: n, i    integer, pointer :: ioff_ptr    <strong>!$omp simd</strong>    do i = 1,n       a(i) = a(i) * b(i) * c(i+ioff_ptr)    end do  end subroutine

listing 4.1 – A loop example written in C++ and FORTRAN.

The second example (written in both OpenMP C/C++ and Fortran) in listing 4.2 shows that the simd construct can be used for a recursive function. The function fib is called unconditionally in main and also conditionally and recursively in itself. By default, the compiler would create a masked vector version and a non-masked vector version while retaining the original scalar version.

  #include <stdio.h>  #include <stdlib.h>  #define N 45  int a[N], b[N], c[N];  <strong>#pragma omp declare simd inbranch</strong>  int fib(int n) {      if (n <= 2)      return n;    else {      return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2);    }  }  

  int main(void) {    for (int i=0; i < N; i++) b[i] = i;    <strong>#pragma omp simd</strong>    for (int i=0; i < N; i++) {      a[i] = fib(b[i]);    }    printf("Done a[%d] = %dn", N-1, a[N-1]);    return 0;  }  </code><code>  program Fibonacci        implicit none    integer,parameter :: N=45    integer           :: a(0:N-1), b(0:N-1)    integer, external :: fib    do i = 0,N-1      b(i) = i    end do    <strong>!$omp simd</strong>    do i=0,N-1      a(i) = fib(b(i))    end do    write(*,*) "Done a(", N-1, ") = ", a(N-1)  ! 44  1134903168  end program  

  recursive function fib(n) result(r)  <strong>!$omp declare simd(fib) inbranch</strong>     implicit none    integer  :: n, r    if (n <= 2) then      r = n    else      r = fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)    endif  end function fib

listing 4.2 - A loop example using declare simd and simd construct.

Although the call to fib in main is not under the condition, the programmer can manually inline the top level call in the loop to fib, which would allow the use of the inbranch clause. Most modern compilers would perform this inlining automatically so fib is always called under the condition, as the example assumes. Either choice would instruct the compiler to generate only the masked vector version, which would reduce compile time and code size.