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Date:      Sun, 10 Feb 2019 17:46:10 -0500
From:      "Brenda J. Butler" <bjb@sourcerer.ca>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: any way asm people could contribute?
Message-ID:  <20190210224610.bjx6a5jchi7rb6tg@blueeyes.stuffed.animals>
In-Reply-To: <20190210213504.0B9E5200E1BA25@ary.qy>
References:  <U-T5V9GBTMH0X4T_hYmtSc4B19QRNPzkirSo_g45l-czdcQaEvhYekzafkZcQOM_Nb9IQ6Qx3EXEQ-aeRrDJkPrqMnQky88TZZlDfr9iTGA=@protonmail.ch> <20190210213504.0B9E5200E1BA25@ary.qy>

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On Sun, Feb 10, 2019 at 04:35:03PM -0500, John Levine wrote:
> In article <U-T5V9GBTMH0X4T_hYmtSc4B19QRNPzkirSo_g45l-czdcQaEvhYekzafkZcQOM_Nb9IQ6Qx3EXEQ-aeRrDJkPrqMnQky88TZZlDfr9iTGA=@protonmail.ch> you write:
> >If anyone can give more precise information about how to
> >contribute in assembly language, I would find it interesting too.
> 
> I think there are a few libraries that have optional assembly language
> versions of speed critical parts.  But in general I agree with you
> that drivers are the place to look.
> 
> Keep in mind that every different architecture has its own assembly
> language, so if you've fixed a driver in i386 assembler, there's
> probably another version in amd64 assembler and possibly in the
> various powerpc and arm assemblers.

There are assembly bits in valgrind, you could also look in
libc and equivalents, also the other tools like strace, ld, etc.

Compilers might have some parts in assembly (gcc, clang, etc).

I don't know of any project that is largely in assembly - the only
ones I know of are mainly C with some small bits in assembly.
So could be a steep learning curve learning the intricacies of
the thing in which the assembly is embedded (so to speak).

Maybe also look for embedded type projects, or non-usual
architectures.  Maybe also libm, data science, graphics libraries -
places where there are cpu-intensive operations that need
optimization.  What about the projects that run on graphics
processors (boinc project or other distributed/crowd computing
for example).  Bitcoin mining (might run on dedicated ASICs).

I would be interested to hear if you find something interesting
to work on.

bjb



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