4 ms·

JS-SIMD

69 points by ndesaulniers 12y ago

higherpurpose 12y ago
Does ARM have any say in this standardization?
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- Sanddancer 12y ago
  ARM's not working with them, but the JS-SIMD standards are being developed such that pretty much and SIMD unit will work with little to no work. Instead of making the commands 256 bits wide like current Intel SIMD ops, they're using 128 bits, which will work with ARM's neon as well with no problem.
- spankalee 12y ago
  The Dart SIMD API [1], which this work is based off of, is supported on ARM chips with NEON. I'm sure the JavaScript API will be too. [1]: https://www.dartlang.org/articles/simd/#implementation-status https://www.dartlang.org/articles/simd/#implementation-statu...
v413 12y ago
JS SIMD will support the ARM Neon instructions. Here is the spec http://esdiscuss.org/notes/2014-07/simd-128-tc39.pdf http://esdiscuss.org/notes/2014-07/simd-128-tc39.pdf
bobajeff 12y ago
> Intel, Google, and Mozilla are working together to propose this SIMD API for standardization. Here's hoping they wind up doing this for "JavaScript Shared Memory, Atomics, and Locks" (aka Pthreads)
- ndesaulniers 12y ago
  People on HN complain about Emscripten being the devil's work, and now here is someone asking for pthread support? I need to go sit down...
  - sitkack 12y ago
    All of those people work on Chrome.
    - ndesaulniers 12y ago
      With SIMD in JS, PNaCl and Dart VM become increasingly irrelevant. Now all that stands in the way is shared memory.
      - CmonDev 12y ago
        >> Now all that stands in the way is shared memory. Also a legacy language people are forced to use.
        ndesaulniers 12y ago
        For a legacy language people are forced to use, take a look at the implementation languages of these browser engines.
      - ahoge 12y ago
        SIMD makes JS a better compile target. The Dart VM is still more "lightweight" (it has to generate a lot less native code) and it offers much faster startup (10x). There also aren't deoptimization traps scattered all over the place. The performance is very predictable. As far as the VM itself is concerned, it doesn't really matter if other browser start to support Dart natively. The VM is extremely useful for development, you can embed it in native applications, and you can use it to write web servers and other command line tools.
        ndesaulniers 12y ago
- duaneb 12y ago
  Insert rant about how javascript is a terrible bytecode
  - ndesaulniers 12y ago
    Is it? It seems to be working quite well.
    - duaneb 12y ago
      "Working" ≠ "working well"

JS-SIMD

69 points by ndesaulniers 12y ago

higherpurpose 12y ago

Does ARM have any say in this standardization?

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Sanddancer 12y ago
ARM's not working with them, but the JS-SIMD standards are being developed such that pretty much and SIMD unit will work with little to no work. Instead of making the commands 256 bits wide like current Intel SIMD ops, they're using 128 bits, which will work with ARM's neon as well with no problem.
spankalee 12y ago
The Dart SIMD API [1], which this work is based off of, is supported on ARM chips with NEON. I'm sure the JavaScript API will be too. [1]: https://www.dartlang.org/articles/simd/#implementation-status https://www.dartlang.org/articles/simd/#implementation-statu...

v413 12y ago

JS SIMD will support the ARM Neon instructions. Here is the spec http://esdiscuss.org/notes/2014-07/simd-128-tc39.pdf http://esdiscuss.org/notes/2014-07/simd-128-tc39.pdf

bobajeff 12y ago

> Intel, Google, and Mozilla are working together to propose this SIMD API for standardization. Here's hoping they wind up doing this for "JavaScript Shared Memory, Atomics, and Locks" (aka Pthreads)

ndesaulniers 12y ago
People on HN complain about Emscripten being the devil's work, and now here is someone asking for pthread support? I need to go sit down...
- sitkack 12y ago
  All of those people work on Chrome.
  - ndesaulniers 12y ago
    With SIMD in JS, PNaCl and Dart VM become increasingly irrelevant. Now all that stands in the way is shared memory.
    - CmonDev 12y ago
      >> Now all that stands in the way is shared memory. Also a legacy language people are forced to use.
      - ndesaulniers 12y ago
        For a legacy language people are forced to use, take a look at the implementation languages of these browser engines.
    - ahoge 12y ago
      SIMD makes JS a better compile target. The Dart VM is still more "lightweight" (it has to generate a lot less native code) and it offers much faster startup (10x). There also aren't deoptimization traps scattered all over the place. The performance is very predictable. As far as the VM itself is concerned, it doesn't really matter if other browser start to support Dart natively. The VM is extremely useful for development, you can embed it in native applications, and you can use it to write web servers and other command line tools.
      - ndesaulniers 12y ago
duaneb 12y ago
Insert rant about how javascript is a terrible bytecode
- ndesaulniers 12y ago
  Is it? It seems to be working quite well.
  - duaneb 12y ago
    "Working" ≠ "working well"