Programming portable optimized multimedia applications

ABSTRACT

Multimedia computer architectures can speed-up applications significantly when programmed manually. Optimized programs have been non-portable up to now, because of differences in instruction sets, register lengths, alignment requirements and programming styles. We solve all these problems by using a library of C pre-processor macros called MMM. We implemented three examples from video compression in MMM, and automatically translated them into optimized code for four distinct multimedia processors. Their performance is comparable, and in several cases better, than equivalent examples optimized by the processor vendors.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.4 Processors
          Subjects: Optimization

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.7 Distribution, Maintenance, and Enhancement
          Subjects: Portability
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.4 Processors
          Subjects: Code generation

General Terms:
Algorithms, Languages, Measurement, Performance

Keywords:
AltiVec, MMX, SIMD, SSE, SSE2, TriMedia, multimedia, optimization, portability