Why set zero in zero.c rather than use xor_n

[Marc Glisse]

On Mon, 5 Feb 2018, Vincent Lefevre wrote:

> On 2018-02-05 21:48:47 +0100, Torbjorn Granlund wrote:
>> I suppose memset is not used as it might come with more overhead for
>> checking alignment.  I haven't timed it, though.
>
> The compiler knows the alignment from the types.

Quite often it does not, the C type system is too weak.

> This is where the optimization should be.

Sadly, I don't think gcc has an optimization like what Niels suggested, 
with multiple memset entry points according to the alignment. Searching a 
bit, it looks like Intel's compiler does (they recommend using 
__assume_aligned on the target of memset).

> The GCC manual mentions a __builtin_memset
> builtin, though I don't know what it does exactly.

That's how a regular call to memset is encoded internally... For small 
constant sizes, it may be expanded inline, but usually it remains a call 
to memset.

-- 
Marc Glisse