| ISA | total | loop | words | notes |
|-----|-------|------|-------|-------|
-| SVP64 | 9 | 7 | 14 | 5 64-bit, 4 32-bit |
+| SVP64 | 8 | 6 | 13 | 5 64-bit, 4 32-bit |
| RVV | 13 | 11 | 9.5 | 7 32-bit, 5 16-bit |
| SVE | 12 | 7 | 12 | all 32-bit |
# SVP64 Power ISA version
-Relies on post-increment, relies on no overlap between x and y
+The first instruction is simple: the plan is to use CTR for looping.
+Therefore, copy n (r5) into CTR. Next however, at the start of
+the loop (L2) is not so obvious: MAXVL is being set to 32
+elements, but at the same time VL is being set to MIN(MAXVL,CTR).
+
+This algorithm
+relies on post-increment, relies on no overlap between x and y
in memory, and critically relies on y overwrite. x is post-incremented
-when read, but y is post-incremented on write. Element-Strided
-ensures the Immediate (8) results in a contiguous LD (or store)
-despite RA being marked Scalar (*without* modifying RA, on `sv.lfd/els`).
-For `sv.lfdup`, RA is Scalar so that only one
-LD/ST Update "wins": the last write to RA is the address for
-the next block.
+when read, but y is post-incremented on write. Load/Store Post-Increment
+is a new Draft set of instructions for the Scalar Subsets, which save
+having to pre-subtract an offset before running the loop.
+
+For `sv.lfdup`, RA is Scalar so continuously accumulates
+additions of the immediate (8):
+the last write to RA is the address for
+the next block (the next time round the CTR loop).
+To understand this it is necessary to appreciate that
+SVP64 is as if a sequence of loop-unrolled scalar instructions were
+issued. With that sequence all writing the new version of RA
+before the next element-instruction, the end result is identical
+in effect to Element-Strided, except that RA points to the start
+of the next batch.
+
+Use of Element-Strided on `sv.lfd/els`
+ensures the Immediate (8) results in a contiguous LD
+*without* modifying RA.
+The first element is loaded from RA, the second from RA+8, the third
+from RA+16 and so on. However unlike the `sv.lfdup`, RA remains
+pointing at the current block being processed of the y array.
+
+With both a part of x and y loaded into a batch of GPR
+registers starting at 32 and 64 respectively, a multiply-and-accumulate
+can be carried out. The scalar constant `a` is in fp1.
+
+Where the curret pointer to y had not been updated by the `sv.lfd/els`
+instruction, this means that y (r7) is already pointing to the
+right place to store the results. However given that we want r7
+to point to the start of the next batch, *now* we can use
+`sv.stfdup` which will post-increment RA repeatedly by 8
+
+Now that the batch of length `VL` has been done, the next step
+is to decrement CTR by VL, which we know due to the setvl instruction
+that VL and CTR will be equal or that if CTR is greater than MAXVL,
+that VL will be *equal* to MAXVL. Therefore, when `sv bc/ctr`
+performs a decrement of CTR by VL, we an be confident that CTR
+will only reach zero if there is no more of the array to process.
+
+Thus in an elegant way each RISC instruction is actually quite sophisticated,
+but not a huge CISC-like difference from the original Power ISA.
+Scalar Power ISA already has LD/ST-Update (pre-increment on RA):
+we propose adding Post-Increment (Motorola 68000 and 8086 have had
+both for decades). Power ISA branch-conditional has had Decrement-CTR
+since its inception: we propose in SVP64 to add "Decrement CTR by VL".
+The end result is an exceptionally compact daxpy that is easy to read
+and understand.
```
# r5: n count; r6: x ptr; r7: y ptr; fp1: a
- 1 addi r3,r7,0 # return result
- 2 mtctr 5 # move n to CTR
- 3 .L2
- 4 setvl MAXVL=32,VL=CTR # actually VL=MIN(MAXVL,CTR)
- 5 sv.lfdup/els *32,8(6) # load x into fp32-63, incr x
- 6 sv.lfd/els *64,8(7) # load y into fp64-95, NO INC
- 7 sv.fmadd *64,*64,1,*32 # (*y) = (*y) * (*x) + a
- 8 sv.stfdup/els *64,8(7) # store at y, incr y
- 9 sv.bc/ctr .L2 # decr CTR by VL, jump !zero
- 10 blr # return
+ 1 mtctr 5 # move n to CTR
+ 2 .L2
+ 3 setvl MAXVL=32,VL=CTR # actually VL=MIN(MAXVL,CTR)
+ 4 sv.lfdup *32,8(6) # load x into fp32-63, incr x
+ 5 sv.lfd/els *64,8(7) # load y into fp64-95, NO INC
+ 6 sv.fmadd *64,*64,1,*32 # (*y) = (*y) * (*x) + a
+ 7 sv.stfdup *64,8(7) # store at y, post-incr y
+ 8 sv.bc/ctr .L2 # decr CTR by VL, jump !zero
+ 9 blr # return
```
# RVV version