[LLVMbugs] [Bug 14024] New: clang does not set DAZ flag in -ffast-math mode

[bugzilla-daemon at llvm.org]

http://llvm.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=14024

             Bug #: 14024
           Summary: clang does not set DAZ flag in -ffast-math mode
           Product: clang
           Version: trunk
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P
         Component: Driver
        AssignedTo: unassignedclangbugs at nondot.org
        ReportedBy: grosser at fim.uni-passau.de
                CC: llvmbugs at cs.uiuc.edu
    Classification: Unclassified


Created attachment 9307
  --> http://llvm.org/bugs/attachment.cgi?id=9307
Test case

$gcc jacobi_1d.DenormalsAreZero.c -O3
$time ./a.out 
real    0m20.164s

$gcc jacobi_1d.DenormalsAreZero.c -O3 -ffast-math
$time ./a.out 
real    0m0.357s

$clang jacobi_1d.DenormalsAreZero.c -O3
$time ./a.out 
real    0m36.660s

$clang jacobi_1d.DenormalsAreZero.c -O3 -ffast-math
$time ./a.out 
real    0m36.431s

As can be seen the gcc produced binary is a lot faster than clang in
-ffast-mode (besides being a little bit faster in general). This is not caused
by better optimizations, but because gcc links in a small function into the
resulting binary, which sets the DAZ register.

>From [1]:

"DAZ tells the CPU to force all Denormals to zero. A Denormal is a number that
is so small that FPU can't renormalize it due to limited exponent ranges.
They're just like normal numbers, but they take considerably longer to process.
Note that not all processors support DAZ."

The test case happens to calculate a lot of these close-to-zero values. Hence,
setting the register has a big impact.

[1] http://softpixel.com/~cwright/programming/simd/sse.php

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