What is the reason for different performance of the same implementation using icc, gcc and clang?

Mar*_*tin 3 x86 assembly gcc simd icc

I have implemented a program for a[i]=a[i-1]+c and I represent it her. I use begin_rdtsc and end_rdtsc to read and store the rdtsc to measure the speedup.

The program is as follows, I use x86intrin.h

#define MAX1 512
#define LEN MAX1*MAX1  //array size for time measure ments
int __attribute__(( aligned(32))) a[LEN];

int main(){

    singleCore // It's a macro to assign the program to a single core of the processor
    int i, b, c;

    begin_rdtsc

    // b=1 and c=2 in this case
    b = 1;
    c = 2;
    i = 0;

    a[i++] = b;//0 --> a[0] = 1
    //step 1:
    //solving dependencies vectorization factor is 8
    a[i++] = a[0] + 1*c; //1  --> a[1] = 1 + 2  = 3
    a[i++] = a[0] + 2*c; //2  --> a[2] = 1 + 4  = 5
    a[i++] = a[0] + 3*c; //3  --> a[3] = 1 + 6  = 7
    a[i++] = a[0] + 4*c; //4  --> a[4] = 1 + 8  = 9
    a[i++] = a[0] + 5*c; //5  --> a[5] = 1 + 10 = 11
    a[i++] = a[0] + 6*c; //6  --> a[6] = 1 + 12 = 13
    a[i++] = a[0] + 7*c; //7  --> a[7] = 1 + 14 = 15
    // vectorization factor reached
    // 8 *c will work for all 
    //loading the results to an vector
    __m256i dep1;
    //__m256i  dep2; //  dep = { 1,   3,  5, 7,  9,  11, 13, 15 }
    __m256i coeff = _mm256_set1_epi32(8*c); //coeff = { 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16 }
    //step2
    for(; i<LEN-1; i+=8){

        dep1 = _mm256_load_si256((__m256i *) &a[i-8]);
        dep1 = _mm256_add_epi32(dep1, coeff);
        _mm256_store_si256((__m256i *) &a[i], dep1);    

    }
    end_rdtsc
    return 0;
}
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I compiled this program with different compilers. My compilers are : icc 18, gcc 7.2, clang 4.

The OS is fedora 27.

The CPU is Corei7 6700HQ (Skylake)

The scalar implementation which is compiled with icc -D _GNU_SOURCE -O3 -no-vec -march=native is the baseline for speedup measurements.

The asm output for each compiler is as follows: Because the behavior of ICC is not normal I copied all the code for icc. I marked the section in C program ("mm...mm1/2").

  1. ICC

    # mark_description "Intel(R) C Intel(R) 64 Compiler for applications running on Intel(R) 64, Version 18.0.1.163 Build 20171018";
    # mark_description "-D _GNU_SOURCE -O3 -no-vec -march=native -c -S -o AIC3iccnovec";
        .file "AIC3.c"
        .text
    ..TXTST0:
    .L_2__routine_start_main_0:
    # -- Begin  main
        .text
    # mark_begin;
           .align    16,0x90
        .globl main
    # --- main()
    main:
    ..B1.1:                         # Preds ..B1.0
                                    # Execution count [1.00e+00]
        .cfi_startproc
    ..___tag_value_main.1:
    ..L2:
                                                              #7.11
            pushq     %rbp                                          #7.11
        .cfi_def_cfa_offset 16
            movq      %rsp, %rbp                                    #7.11
        .cfi_def_cfa 6, 16
        .cfi_offset 6, -16
            andq      $-128, %rsp                                   #7.11
            subq      $128, %rsp                                    #7.11
            xorl      %esi, %esi                                    #7.11
            movl      $3, %edi                                      #7.11
            call      __intel_new_feature_proc_init                 #7.11
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.21:                        # Preds ..B1.1
                                    # Execution count [1.00e+00]
            vstmxcsr  (%rsp)                                        #7.11
            vpxor     %ymm0, %ymm0, %ymm0                           #9.2
            orl       $32832, (%rsp)                                #7.11
            vldmxcsr  (%rsp)                                        #7.11
            vmovups   %ymm0, mask(%rip)                             #9.2
            vmovups   %ymm0, 32+mask(%rip)                          #9.2
            vmovups   %ymm0, 64+mask(%rip)                          #9.2
            vmovups   %ymm0, 96+mask(%rip)                          #9.2
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.2:                         # Preds ..B1.21
                                    # Execution count [5.00e-01]
            xorl      %edi, %edi                                    #9.2
            movl      $128, %esi                                    #9.2
            movl      $mask, %edx                                   #9.2
            orq       $12, mask(%rip)                               #9.2
            vzeroupper                                              #9.2
    ..___tag_value_main.6:
    #       sched_setaffinity(__pid_t, size_t, const cpu_set_t *)
            call      sched_setaffinity                             #9.2
    ..___tag_value_main.7:
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.3:                         # Preds ..B1.2
                                    # Execution count [1.72e+00]
            movq      $0xdf84757ff, %rax                            #12.5
            movq      $.L_2__STRING.1, programName(%rip)            #10.2
            movq      $100000000, elapsed_rdtsc(%rip)               #12.5
            movq      %rax, overal_time(%rip)                       #12.5
            movq      $0, ttime(%rip)                               #12.5
            vmovdqu   .L_2il0floatpacket.2(%rip), %ymm0             #33.21
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.4:                         # Preds ..B1.12 ..B1.3
                                    # Execution count [2.91e+00]
    # Begin ASM
    # #mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm1
    # End ASM
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.23:                        # Preds ..B1.4
                                    # Execution count [2.91e+00]
            vzeroupper                                              #12.5
            rdtsc                                                   #12.5
            shlq      $32, %rdx                                     #12.5
            orq       %rdx, %rax                                    #12.5
                                    # LOE rax rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.5:                         # Preds ..B1.23
                                    # Execution count [2.62e+00]
            movq      %rax, t1_rdtsc(%rip)                          #12.5
            xorl      %edx, %edx                                    #35.5
            movl      $1, a(%rip)                                   #18.5
            xorl      %eax, %eax                                    #35.5
            movl      $3, 4+a(%rip)                                 #21.5
            movl      $5, 8+a(%rip)                                 #21.5
            movl      $7, 12+a(%rip)                                #21.5
            movl      $9, 16+a(%rip)                                #21.5
            movl      $11, 20+a(%rip)                               #21.5
            movl      $13, 24+a(%rip)                               #21.5
            movl      $15, 28+a(%rip)                               #21.5
            vmovdqu   .L_2il0floatpacket.2(%rip), %ymm1             #35.5
                                    # LOE rax rbx r12 r13 r14 r15 edx ymm1
    ..B1.6:                         # Preds ..B1.6 ..B1.5
                                    # Execution count [4.29e+04]
            vpaddd    a(%rax), %ymm1, %ymm0                         #38.16
            incl      %edx                                          #35.5
            vmovdqu   %ymm0, 32+a(%rax)                             #39.41
            addq      $32, %rax                                     #35.5
            cmpl      $2047, %edx                                   #35.5
            jb        ..B1.6        # Prob 99%                      #35.5
                                    # LOE rax rbx r12 r13 r14 r15 edx ymm1
    ..B1.7:                         # Preds ..B1.6
                                    # Execution count [2.91e+00]
            vzeroupper                                              #46.5
            rdtsc                                                   #46.5
            shlq      $32, %rdx                                     #46.5
            orq       %rdx, %rax                                    #46.5
                                    # LOE rax rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.8:                         # Preds ..B1.7
                                    # Execution count [2.91e+00]
            movq      %rax, t2_rdtsc(%rip)                          #46.5
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.26:                        # Preds ..B1.8
                                    # Execution count [2.91e+00]
    # Begin ASM
    # #mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm2
    # End ASM
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.25:                        # Preds ..B1.26
                                    # Execution count [2.91e+00]
            movq      t2_rdtsc(%rip), %rdx                          #46.5
            subq      t1_rdtsc(%rip), %rdx                          #46.5
            movq      ttbest_rdtsc(%rip), %rsi                      #46.5
            movq      %rdx, ttotal_rdtsc(%rip)                      #46.5
            cmpq      %rsi, %rdx                                    #46.5
            jge       ..B1.10       # Prob 50%                      #46.5
                                    # LOE rdx rbx rsi r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.9:                         # Preds ..B1.25
                                    # Execution count [1.45e+00]
            movq      elapsed_rdtsc(%rip), %rcx                     #46.5
            movq      %rcx, %rax                                    #46.5
            negq      %rax                                          #46.5
            movq      %rdx, %rsi                                    #46.5
            addq      $100000000, %rax                              #46.5
            movq      %rdx, ttbest_rdtsc(%rip)                      #46.5
            movq      %rax, elapsed(%rip)                           #46.5
            jmp       ..B1.11       # Prob 100%                     #46.5
                                    # LOE rdx rcx rbx rsi r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.10:                        # Preds ..B1.25
                                    # Execution count [1.45e+00]
            movq      elapsed_rdtsc(%rip), %rcx                     #46.5
                                    # LOE rdx rcx rbx rsi r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.11:                        # Preds ..B1.9 ..B1.10
                                    # Execution count [2.91e+00]
            movq      ttime(%rip), %rax                             #46.5
            addq      %rdx, %rax                                    #46.5
            movq      %rax, ttime(%rip)                             #46.5
            testq     %rcx, %rcx                                    #46.5
            je        ..B1.14       # Prob 50%                      #46.5
                                    # LOE rax rcx rbx rsi r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.12:                        # Preds ..B1.11
                                    # Execution count [1.45e+00]
            decq      %rcx                                          #46.5
            movq      %rcx, elapsed_rdtsc(%rip)                     #46.5
            cmpq      overal_time(%rip), %rax                       #46.5
            jl        ..B1.4        # Prob 82%                      #46.5
            jmp       ..B1.15       # Prob 100%                     #46.5
                                    # LOE rcx rbx rsi r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.14:                        # Preds ..B1.11
                                    # Execution count [1.45e+00]
            movq      $-1, elapsed_rdtsc(%rip)                      #46.5
            movq      $-1, %rcx                                     #46.5
                                    # LOE rcx rbx rsi r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.15:                        # Preds ..B1.12 ..B1.14
                                    # Execution count [1.00e+00]
            negq      %rcx                                          #46.5
            movl      $.L_2__STRING.2, %edi                         #46.5
            addq      $100000000, %rcx                              #46.5
            xorl      %eax, %eax                                    #46.5
            movq      elapsed(%rip), %rdx                           #46.5
    ..___tag_value_main.8:
    #       printf(const char *__restrict__, ...)
            call      printf                                        #46.5
    ..___tag_value_main.9:
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.16:                        # Preds ..B1.15
                                    # Execution count [1.00e+00]
            movl      $.L_2__STRING.3, %edi                         #46.5
            movl      $.L_2__STRING.4, %esi                         #46.5
    #       fopen(const char *__restrict__, const char *__restrict__)
            call      fopen                                         #46.5
                                    # LOE rax rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.17:                        # Preds ..B1.16
                                    # Execution count [1.00e+00]
            movl      $128, %ecx                                    #46.5
            movq      %rax, %rdi                                    #46.5
            movq      %rax, fileForSpeedups(%rip)                   #46.5
            movl      $.L_2__STRING.5, %esi                         #46.5
            movl      %ecx, %r8d                                    #46.5
            xorl      %eax, %eax                                    #46.5
            movq      programName(%rip), %rdx                       #46.5
            movq      ttbest_rdtsc(%rip), %r9                       #46.5
    #       fprintf(FILE *__restrict__, const char *__restrict__, ...)
            call      fprintf                                       #46.5
                                    # LOE rbx r12 r13 r14 r15
    ..B1.18:                        # Preds ..B1.17
                                    # Execution count [1.00e+00]
            xorl      %eax, %eax                                    #47.9
            movq      %rbp, %rsp                                    #47.9
            popq      %rbp                                          #47.9
        .cfi_def_cfa 7, 8
        .cfi_restore 6
            ret                                                     #47.9
            .align    16,0x90
                                    # LOE
        .cfi_endproc
    # mark_end;
        .type   main,@function
        .size   main,.-main
    ..LNmain.0:
        .data
    # -- End  main
        .bss
        .align 8
        .align 8
        .globl fileForSpeedups
    fileForSpeedups:
        .type   fileForSpeedups,@object
        .size   fileForSpeedups,8
        .space 8    # pad
        .align 8
        .globl ttime
    ttime:
        .type   ttime,@object
        .size   ttime,8
        .space 8    # pad
        .data
        .align 8
        .align 8
        .globl programName
    programName:
        .quad   .L_2__STRING.0
        .type   programName,@object
        .size   programName,8
        .align 8
        .globl ttbest_rdtsc
    ttbest_rdtsc:
        .long   0x5d89ffff,0x01634578
        .type   ttbest_rdtsc,@object
        .size   ttbest_rdtsc,8
        .align 8
        .globl elapsed_rdtsc
    elapsed_rdtsc:
        .long   0x05f5e100,0x00000000
        .type   elapsed_rdtsc,@object
        .size   elapsed_rdtsc,8
        .align 8
        .globl overal_time
    overal_time:
        .long   0xf84757ff,0x0000000d
        .type   overal_time,@object
        .size   overal_time,8
        .section .rodata, "a"
        .align 32
        .align 32
    .L_2il0floatpacket.2:
        .long   0x00000010,0x00000010,0x00000010,0x00000010,0x00000010,0x00000010,0x00000010,0x00000010
        .type   .L_2il0floatpacket.2,@object
        .size   .L_2il0floatpacket.2,32
        .section .rodata.str1.4, "aMS",@progbits,1
        .align 4
        .align 4
    .L_2__STRING.1:
        .long   860047681
        .byte   0
        .type   .L_2__STRING.1,@object
        .size   .L_2__STRING.1,5
        .space 3, 0x00  # pad
        .align 4
    .L_2__STRING.2:
        .long   1701344266
        .long   1936024096
        .long   1936269428
        .long   1819026720
        .long   1852383332
        .long   1819026720
        .long   543716452
        .long   1919251561
        .long   1869182049
        .long   1851859054
        .long   1814372452
        .long   1914725484
        .long   1952804965
        .long   1869182057
        .long   684910
        .type   .L_2__STRING.2,@object
        .size   .L_2__STRING.2,60
        .align 4
    .L_2__STRING.3:
        .long   1701603686
        .long   1400008518
        .long   1684366704
        .long   7565429
        .type   .L_2__STRING.3,@object
        .size   .L_2__STRING.3,16
        .align 4
    .L_2__STRING.4:
        .word   97
        .type   .L_2__STRING.4,@object
        .size   .L_2__STRING.4,2
        .space 2, 0x00  # pad
        .align 4
    .L_2__STRING.5:
        .long   539783973
        .long   628646949
        .long   622865508
        .long   174353516
        .byte   0
        .type   .L_2__STRING.5,@object
        .size   .L_2__STRING.5,17
        .space 3, 0x00  # pad
        .align 4
    .L_2__STRING.0:
        .word   32
        .type   .L_2__STRING.0,@object
        .size   .L_2__STRING.0,2
        .data
        .comm mask1,128,32
        .comm t1_rdtsc,8,8
        .comm t2_rdtsc,8,8
        .comm ttotal_rdtsc,8,8
        .comm elapsed,8,8
        .comm mask,128,32
        .comm a,65536,32
        .section .note.GNU-stack, ""
    // -- Begin DWARF2 SEGMENT .eh_frame
        .section .eh_frame,"a",@progbits
    .eh_frame_seg:
        .align 8
    # End
    
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  2. GCC

    //gcc  -D _GNU_SOURCE -O3 -fno-tree-vectorize -fno-tree-slp-vectorize -march=native -c -S -o "AIC3" "AIC3.c"
    rdtsc
    salq    $32, %rdx
    movq    %r10, a(%rip)
    
    
    orq %rdx, %rax
    movq    %r9, a+8(%rip)
    movq    %r8, a+16(%rip)
    movq    %rdi, a+24(%rip)
    
    
    vmovdqa a(%rip), %ymm1
    movq    %rax, t1_rdtsc(%rip)
    movl    $a+32, %eax
    .p2align 4,,10
    .p2align 3
    .L2:
        vpaddd  %ymm1, %ymm2, %ymm0
        addq    $32, %rax
        vmovdqa %ymm0, -32(%rax)
        vmovdqa %ymm0, %ymm1
        cmpq    %rax, %rcx
        jne .L2
    rdtsc
    
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  3. Clang

    //clang  -D _GNU_SOURCE -O3 -fno-vectorize -fno-slp-vectorize -march=native -c -S -o "AIC3"clang "
    rdtsc
    shlq    $32, %rdx
    orq %rax, %rdx
    movq    %rdx, t1_rdtsc(%rip)
    movq    %r8, a(%rip)
    movq    %r9, a+8(%rip)
    movq    %r10, a+16(%rip)
    movq    %rcx, a+24(%rip)
    vmovdqa a(%rip), %ymm8
    movl    $64, %eax
    jmp .LBB0_2
    .p2align    4, 0x90
    .LBB0_9:                                #   in Loop: Header=BB0_2 Depth=2
        vpaddd  %ymm7, %ymm8, %ymm8
        vmovdqa %ymm8, a(,%rax,4)
        addq    $64, %rax
    .LBB0_2:                                #   Parent Loop BB0_1 Depth=1
                                        # =>  This Inner Loop Header: Depth=2
        vpaddd  %ymm0, %ymm8, %ymm9
        vmovdqa %ymm9, a-224(,%rax,4)
        vpaddd  %ymm1, %ymm8, %ymm9
        vmovdqa %ymm9, a-192(,%rax,4)
        vpaddd  %ymm2, %ymm8, %ymm9
        vmovdqa %ymm9, a-160(,%rax,4)
        vpaddd  %ymm3, %ymm8, %ymm9
        vmovdqa %ymm9, a-128(,%rax,4)
        vpaddd  %ymm4, %ymm8, %ymm9
        vmovdqa %ymm9, a-96(,%rax,4)
        vpaddd  %ymm5, %ymm8, %ymm9
        vmovdqa %ymm9, a-64(,%rax,4)
        vpaddd  %ymm6, %ymm8, %ymm9
        vmovdqa %ymm9, a-32(,%rax,4)
        cmpq    $16383, %rax            # imm = 0x3FFF
        jl  .LBB0_9
    # BB#3:                                 #   in Loop: Header=BB0_1 Depth=1
    rdtsc
    
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The speedups are ~1.30, ~4.10 and 4.00 using icc, gcc and clang, respectively.

As I mentioned, I've compiled the same code with different compilers and recorder the rdtsc. speedup for ICC is not as I expected. I used IACA to watch the inner loop, the summarized output is:

-----------------------------------------------------
|  compilers  |    icc    |     gcc    |    clang    |
------------------------------------------------------
|  Throughput |1.49 cycle |1.00 cycle  |1.49 cycle   |
------------------------------------------------------
|  bottleneck | Front End | dependency | Front End   |
------------------------------------------------------
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UPDATE-0 : I've compared with and without IACA generated codes. The reason that IACA does not help, in this case, is the outputs are not the same. It seems injecting the IACA marks forces the compilers to stop their optimization, GCC has the same generated code as ICC and Clang has. But, calculating the addresses in GCC is more efficient in throughput point of view. In summary, IACA cannot help for this code.

UPDATE-1 : The outputs for perf is as follows:

512*512
ICC:

 86.06 ?loop:  vpaddd 0x604580(%rax),%ymm1,%ymm0
  0.17 ?       inc    %edx
  4.73 ?       vmovdq %ymm0,0x6045a0(%rax)
       ?       add    $0x20,%rax
       ?       cmp    $0x7fff,%edx
  8.98 ?       jb     loop


GCC:

 30.62 ?loop:  vpaddd %ymm1,%ymm2,%ymm0
 15.12 ?       add    $0x20,%rax
 46.03 ?       vmovdq %ymm0,-0x20(%rax)
  2.40 ?       vmovdq %ymm0,%ymm1
  0.01 ?       cmp    %rax,%rcx
  5.62 ?       jne    loop


LLVM:

  3.00 ?loop:  vpaddd %ymm0,%ymm7,%ymm8                                                  
  6.61 ?       vmovdq %ymm8,0x6020e0(,%rax,4)                                            
 15.96 ?       vpaddd %ymm1,%ymm7,%ymm8                                                  
  5.19 ?       vmovdq %ymm8,0x602100(,%rax,4)                                            
  1.89 ?       vpaddd %ymm2,%ymm7,%ymm8                                                  
  6.16 ?       vmovdq %ymm8,0x602120(,%rax,4)                                            
 13.25 ?       vpaddd %ymm3,%ymm7,%ymm8                                                 
  8.01 ?       vmovdq %ymm8,0x602140(,%rax,4)                                            
  2.10 ?       vpaddd %ymm4,%ymm7,%ymm8                                                  
  5.37 ?       vmovdq %ymm8,0x602160(,%rax,4)                                            
 13.92 ?       vpaddd %ymm5,%ymm7,%ymm8                                                  
  7.95 ?       vmovdq %ymm8,0x602180(,%rax,4)                                            
  0.89 ?       vpaddd %ymm6,%ymm7,%ymm7                                                  
  4.34 ?       vmovdq %ymm7,0x6021a0(,%rax,4)                                            
  2.82 ?       add    $0x38,%rax                                                         
       ?       cmp    $0x3ffff,%rax                                                      
  2.24 ?       jl     loop                                                                
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ICC程序集输出显示内部有一些SIMD指令rdtsc.如果我错过了什么,或者出了什么问题,我真的不知道.我花了很多时间来实现这个问题但是没有成就.如果有人知道原因帮助我,请.提前致谢.

har*_*old 6

不同的编译器实际上在这里使用相当不同的实现策略.

GCC注意到它永远不必重新加载a[i-8],这是在前一次迭代中计算的,因此可以从寄存器中获取.这有点依赖于mov-elimination,否则reg-reg移动仍会增加一些延迟,但即使没有mov-elimination,它也会比每次重新加载快得多.

ICC的codegen非常幼稚,它就像你编写它一样.存储/重新加载会增加很多延迟.

Clang与GCC大致相同,但是按8排序(减去第一次迭代).Clang经常喜欢展开更多.我不确定为什么它比GCC稍微差一些.

您可以通过显式不首先执行此操作来避免重新加载:(未测试)

dep1 = _mm256_load_si256((__m256i *) &a[0]);
for(; i<LEN-1; i+=8){

    dep1 = _mm256_add_epi32(dep1, coeff);
    _mm256_store_si256((__m256i *) &a[i], dep1);    

}
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