The really strange thing about this is that GPU shaders are essentially SIMD programs - but nobody, except for some real hardcore gamedevs, program SIMD assembl

The really strange thing about this is that GPU shaders are essentially SIMD programs - but nobody, except for some real hardcore gamedevs, program SIMD assembly directly, the compiler handles it for you. There's ISPC, which is basically a C-like language and SIMD compiler, that translates it's scalar code into SIMD assembly, but other than that, SIMD code tends to be hand rolled.