[LLVMdev] llvm.powi intrinsic

[Jon Sargeant]

Hello,

The purpose of the llvm.powi intrinsic isn't clear to me.  Why is 
llvm.powi preferable to multiplication and division for small constant 
powers (e.g., 1/x, x*x, etc.)?  Why is it preferable to llvm.pow for 
large variable powers?  I'm also curious about the time bound.  I'm 
assuming that powi(x,1000000) doesn't do a million multiplications... 
Do any architectures have an integer power instruction of some sort?

Regards,
Jon