Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 09:13:38 -0800 From: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com> To: Archie Cobbs <archie@whistle.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: what does MMX mean? Message-ID: <199801151713.JAA01877@rah.star-gate.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 14 Jan 1998 15:55:09 PST." <199801142355.PAA05051@bubba.whistle.com>
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> > What, exactly, does MMX mean? > > Does it mean the processor has NEW instructions for DSP type operations? > Does it speed up EXISTING instructions? Integer or floating point (or both)? > > Thanks, > -Archie > Not sure what it means --- my guess is MultiMedia eXtensions. It does not speed up integer operations nor floating points in the case of the latter it actually slows it down. with MMX instructions you can do things like do a byte-wise add to a long word. The MMX instructions is more like DSP operations and it was probably designed to speed up codecs such H.263 and MPEG. Cheers, Amancio
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