X86 assembly (MASM) – Square root of a 64-bit integer

assemblymasmmasm32x86

I'm coding a simple primality tester program for Windows in x86 assembly language (MASM32), which involves calculating a square root of a (64-bit) integer. My question is: Is there any simple way for obtaining the square root? Should I use some combination of ADD/SUB/DIV/MUL instructions?

I found some information on how this could be achieved in C language, but I'm just wondering if I'm missing something here?

Best Answer

I think the simplest way is to use the FPU instruction fsqrt like this:

.data?
int64 dq ?
squareRoot dd ?

.code
fild int64        ;load the integer to ST(0)
fsqrt             ;compute square root and store to ST(0)
fistp squareRoot  ;store the result in memory (as a 32-bit integer) and pop ST(0)

Warning:

If you decide to compile and run this, pay attention to your CPU temperatures!!!
Make sure you don't overheat it. And make sure CPU-throttling doesn't affect your results!

Furthermore, I take no responsibility for whatever damage that may result from running this code.

Notes:

This code is optimized for x64. x86 doesn't have enough registers for this to compile well.
This code has been tested to work well on Visual Studio 2010/2012 and GCC 4.6.
ICC 11 (Intel Compiler 11) surprisingly has trouble compiling it well.
These are for pre-FMA processors. In order to achieve peak FLOPS on Intel Haswell and AMD Bulldozer processors (and later), FMA (Fused Multiply Add) instructions will be needed. These are beyond the scope of this benchmark.

#include <emmintrin.h>
#include <omp.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

typedef unsigned long long uint64;

double test_dp_mac_SSE(double x,double y,uint64 iterations){
    register __m128d r0,r1,r2,r3,r4,r5,r6,r7,r8,r9,rA,rB,rC,rD,rE,rF;

    //  Generate starting data.
    r0 = _mm_set1_pd(x);
    r1 = _mm_set1_pd(y);

    r8 = _mm_set1_pd(-0.0);

    r2 = _mm_xor_pd(r0,r8);
    r3 = _mm_or_pd(r0,r8);
    r4 = _mm_andnot_pd(r8,r0);
    r5 = _mm_mul_pd(r1,_mm_set1_pd(0.37796447300922722721));
    r6 = _mm_mul_pd(r1,_mm_set1_pd(0.24253562503633297352));
    r7 = _mm_mul_pd(r1,_mm_set1_pd(4.1231056256176605498));
    r8 = _mm_add_pd(r0,_mm_set1_pd(0.37796447300922722721));
    r9 = _mm_add_pd(r1,_mm_set1_pd(0.24253562503633297352));
    rA = _mm_sub_pd(r0,_mm_set1_pd(4.1231056256176605498));
    rB = _mm_sub_pd(r1,_mm_set1_pd(4.1231056256176605498));

    rC = _mm_set1_pd(1.4142135623730950488);
    rD = _mm_set1_pd(1.7320508075688772935);
    rE = _mm_set1_pd(0.57735026918962576451);
    rF = _mm_set1_pd(0.70710678118654752440);

    uint64 iMASK = 0x800fffffffffffffull;
    __m128d MASK = _mm_set1_pd(*(double*)&iMASK);
    __m128d vONE = _mm_set1_pd(1.0);

    uint64 c = 0;
    while (c < iterations){
        size_t i = 0;
        while (i < 1000){
            //  Here's the meat - the part that really matters.

            r0 = _mm_mul_pd(r0,rC);
            r1 = _mm_add_pd(r1,rD);
            r2 = _mm_mul_pd(r2,rE);
            r3 = _mm_sub_pd(r3,rF);
            r4 = _mm_mul_pd(r4,rC);
            r5 = _mm_add_pd(r5,rD);
            r6 = _mm_mul_pd(r6,rE);
            r7 = _mm_sub_pd(r7,rF);
            r8 = _mm_mul_pd(r8,rC);
            r9 = _mm_add_pd(r9,rD);
            rA = _mm_mul_pd(rA,rE);
            rB = _mm_sub_pd(rB,rF);

            r0 = _mm_add_pd(r0,rF);
            r1 = _mm_mul_pd(r1,rE);
            r2 = _mm_sub_pd(r2,rD);
            r3 = _mm_mul_pd(r3,rC);
            r4 = _mm_add_pd(r4,rF);
            r5 = _mm_mul_pd(r5,rE);
            r6 = _mm_sub_pd(r6,rD);
            r7 = _mm_mul_pd(r7,rC);
            r8 = _mm_add_pd(r8,rF);
            r9 = _mm_mul_pd(r9,rE);
            rA = _mm_sub_pd(rA,rD);
            rB = _mm_mul_pd(rB,rC);

            r0 = _mm_mul_pd(r0,rC);
            r1 = _mm_add_pd(r1,rD);
            r2 = _mm_mul_pd(r2,rE);
            r3 = _mm_sub_pd(r3,rF);
            r4 = _mm_mul_pd(r4,rC);
            r5 = _mm_add_pd(r5,rD);
            r6 = _mm_mul_pd(r6,rE);
            r7 = _mm_sub_pd(r7,rF);
            r8 = _mm_mul_pd(r8,rC);
            r9 = _mm_add_pd(r9,rD);
            rA = _mm_mul_pd(rA,rE);
            rB = _mm_sub_pd(rB,rF);

            r0 = _mm_add_pd(r0,rF);
            r1 = _mm_mul_pd(r1,rE);
            r2 = _mm_sub_pd(r2,rD);
            r3 = _mm_mul_pd(r3,rC);
            r4 = _mm_add_pd(r4,rF);
            r5 = _mm_mul_pd(r5,rE);
            r6 = _mm_sub_pd(r6,rD);
            r7 = _mm_mul_pd(r7,rC);
            r8 = _mm_add_pd(r8,rF);
            r9 = _mm_mul_pd(r9,rE);
            rA = _mm_sub_pd(rA,rD);
            rB = _mm_mul_pd(rB,rC);

            i++;
        }

        //  Need to renormalize to prevent denormal/overflow.
        r0 = _mm_and_pd(r0,MASK);
        r1 = _mm_and_pd(r1,MASK);
        r2 = _mm_and_pd(r2,MASK);
        r3 = _mm_and_pd(r3,MASK);
        r4 = _mm_and_pd(r4,MASK);
        r5 = _mm_and_pd(r5,MASK);
        r6 = _mm_and_pd(r6,MASK);
        r7 = _mm_and_pd(r7,MASK);
        r8 = _mm_and_pd(r8,MASK);
        r9 = _mm_and_pd(r9,MASK);
        rA = _mm_and_pd(rA,MASK);
        rB = _mm_and_pd(rB,MASK);
        r0 = _mm_or_pd(r0,vONE);
        r1 = _mm_or_pd(r1,vONE);
        r2 = _mm_or_pd(r2,vONE);
        r3 = _mm_or_pd(r3,vONE);
        r4 = _mm_or_pd(r4,vONE);
        r5 = _mm_or_pd(r5,vONE);
        r6 = _mm_or_pd(r6,vONE);
        r7 = _mm_or_pd(r7,vONE);
        r8 = _mm_or_pd(r8,vONE);
        r9 = _mm_or_pd(r9,vONE);
        rA = _mm_or_pd(rA,vONE);
        rB = _mm_or_pd(rB,vONE);

        c++;
    }

    r0 = _mm_add_pd(r0,r1);
    r2 = _mm_add_pd(r2,r3);
    r4 = _mm_add_pd(r4,r5);
    r6 = _mm_add_pd(r6,r7);
    r8 = _mm_add_pd(r8,r9);
    rA = _mm_add_pd(rA,rB);

    r0 = _mm_add_pd(r0,r2);
    r4 = _mm_add_pd(r4,r6);
    r8 = _mm_add_pd(r8,rA);

    r0 = _mm_add_pd(r0,r4);
    r0 = _mm_add_pd(r0,r8);


    //  Prevent Dead Code Elimination
    double out = 0;
    __m128d temp = r0;
    out += ((double*)&temp)[0];
    out += ((double*)&temp)[1];

    return out;
}

void test_dp_mac_SSE(int tds,uint64 iterations){

    double *sum = (double*)malloc(tds * sizeof(double));
    double start = omp_get_wtime();

#pragma omp parallel num_threads(tds)
    {
        double ret = test_dp_mac_SSE(1.1,2.1,iterations);
        sum[omp_get_thread_num()] = ret;
    }

    double secs = omp_get_wtime() - start;
    uint64 ops = 48 * 1000 * iterations * tds * 2;
    cout << "Seconds = " << secs << endl;
    cout << "FP Ops  = " << ops << endl;
    cout << "FLOPs   = " << ops / secs << endl;

    double out = 0;
    int c = 0;
    while (c < tds){
        out += sum[c++];
    }

    cout << "sum = " << out << endl;
    cout << endl;

    free(sum);
}

int main(){
    //  (threads, iterations)
    test_dp_mac_SSE(8,10000000);

    system("pause");
}

Output (1 thread, 10000000 iterations) - Compiled with Visual Studio 2010 SP1 - x64 Release:

Seconds = 55.5104
FP Ops  = 960000000000
FLOPs   = 1.7294e+010
sum = 2.22652

The machine is a Core i7 2600K @ 4.4 GHz. Theoretical SSE peak is 4 flops * 4.4 GHz = 17.6 GFlops. This code achieves 17.3 GFlops - not bad.

Output (8 threads, 10000000 iterations) - Compiled with Visual Studio 2010 SP1 - x64 Release:

Seconds = 117.202
FP Ops  = 7680000000000
FLOPs   = 6.55279e+010
sum = 17.8122

Theoretical SSE peak is 4 flops * 4 cores * 4.4 GHz = 70.4 GFlops. Actual is 65.5 GFlops.

Let's take this one step further. AVX...

#include <immintrin.h>
#include <omp.h>
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

typedef unsigned long long uint64;

double test_dp_mac_AVX(double x,double y,uint64 iterations){
    register __m256d r0,r1,r2,r3,r4,r5,r6,r7,r8,r9,rA,rB,rC,rD,rE,rF;

    //  Generate starting data.
    r0 = _mm256_set1_pd(x);
    r1 = _mm256_set1_pd(y);

    r8 = _mm256_set1_pd(-0.0);

    r2 = _mm256_xor_pd(r0,r8);
    r3 = _mm256_or_pd(r0,r8);
    r4 = _mm256_andnot_pd(r8,r0);
    r5 = _mm256_mul_pd(r1,_mm256_set1_pd(0.37796447300922722721));
    r6 = _mm256_mul_pd(r1,_mm256_set1_pd(0.24253562503633297352));
    r7 = _mm256_mul_pd(r1,_mm256_set1_pd(4.1231056256176605498));
    r8 = _mm256_add_pd(r0,_mm256_set1_pd(0.37796447300922722721));
    r9 = _mm256_add_pd(r1,_mm256_set1_pd(0.24253562503633297352));
    rA = _mm256_sub_pd(r0,_mm256_set1_pd(4.1231056256176605498));
    rB = _mm256_sub_pd(r1,_mm256_set1_pd(4.1231056256176605498));

    rC = _mm256_set1_pd(1.4142135623730950488);
    rD = _mm256_set1_pd(1.7320508075688772935);
    rE = _mm256_set1_pd(0.57735026918962576451);
    rF = _mm256_set1_pd(0.70710678118654752440);

    uint64 iMASK = 0x800fffffffffffffull;
    __m256d MASK = _mm256_set1_pd(*(double*)&iMASK);
    __m256d vONE = _mm256_set1_pd(1.0);

    uint64 c = 0;
    while (c < iterations){
        size_t i = 0;
        while (i < 1000){
            //  Here's the meat - the part that really matters.

            r0 = _mm256_mul_pd(r0,rC);
            r1 = _mm256_add_pd(r1,rD);
            r2 = _mm256_mul_pd(r2,rE);
            r3 = _mm256_sub_pd(r3,rF);
            r4 = _mm256_mul_pd(r4,rC);
            r5 = _mm256_add_pd(r5,rD);
            r6 = _mm256_mul_pd(r6,rE);
            r7 = _mm256_sub_pd(r7,rF);
            r8 = _mm256_mul_pd(r8,rC);
            r9 = _mm256_add_pd(r9,rD);
            rA = _mm256_mul_pd(rA,rE);
            rB = _mm256_sub_pd(rB,rF);

            r0 = _mm256_add_pd(r0,rF);
            r1 = _mm256_mul_pd(r1,rE);
            r2 = _mm256_sub_pd(r2,rD);
            r3 = _mm256_mul_pd(r3,rC);
            r4 = _mm256_add_pd(r4,rF);
            r5 = _mm256_mul_pd(r5,rE);
            r6 = _mm256_sub_pd(r6,rD);
            r7 = _mm256_mul_pd(r7,rC);
            r8 = _mm256_add_pd(r8,rF);
            r9 = _mm256_mul_pd(r9,rE);
            rA = _mm256_sub_pd(rA,rD);
            rB = _mm256_mul_pd(rB,rC);

            r0 = _mm256_mul_pd(r0,rC);
            r1 = _mm256_add_pd(r1,rD);
            r2 = _mm256_mul_pd(r2,rE);
            r3 = _mm256_sub_pd(r3,rF);
            r4 = _mm256_mul_pd(r4,rC);
            r5 = _mm256_add_pd(r5,rD);
            r6 = _mm256_mul_pd(r6,rE);
            r7 = _mm256_sub_pd(r7,rF);
            r8 = _mm256_mul_pd(r8,rC);
            r9 = _mm256_add_pd(r9,rD);
            rA = _mm256_mul_pd(rA,rE);
            rB = _mm256_sub_pd(rB,rF);

            r0 = _mm256_add_pd(r0,rF);
            r1 = _mm256_mul_pd(r1,rE);
            r2 = _mm256_sub_pd(r2,rD);
            r3 = _mm256_mul_pd(r3,rC);
            r4 = _mm256_add_pd(r4,rF);
            r5 = _mm256_mul_pd(r5,rE);
            r6 = _mm256_sub_pd(r6,rD);
            r7 = _mm256_mul_pd(r7,rC);
            r8 = _mm256_add_pd(r8,rF);
            r9 = _mm256_mul_pd(r9,rE);
            rA = _mm256_sub_pd(rA,rD);
            rB = _mm256_mul_pd(rB,rC);

            i++;
        }

        //  Need to renormalize to prevent denormal/overflow.
        r0 = _mm256_and_pd(r0,MASK);
        r1 = _mm256_and_pd(r1,MASK);
        r2 = _mm256_and_pd(r2,MASK);
        r3 = _mm256_and_pd(r3,MASK);
        r4 = _mm256_and_pd(r4,MASK);
        r5 = _mm256_and_pd(r5,MASK);
        r6 = _mm256_and_pd(r6,MASK);
        r7 = _mm256_and_pd(r7,MASK);
        r8 = _mm256_and_pd(r8,MASK);
        r9 = _mm256_and_pd(r9,MASK);
        rA = _mm256_and_pd(rA,MASK);
        rB = _mm256_and_pd(rB,MASK);
        r0 = _mm256_or_pd(r0,vONE);
        r1 = _mm256_or_pd(r1,vONE);
        r2 = _mm256_or_pd(r2,vONE);
        r3 = _mm256_or_pd(r3,vONE);
        r4 = _mm256_or_pd(r4,vONE);
        r5 = _mm256_or_pd(r5,vONE);
        r6 = _mm256_or_pd(r6,vONE);
        r7 = _mm256_or_pd(r7,vONE);
        r8 = _mm256_or_pd(r8,vONE);
        r9 = _mm256_or_pd(r9,vONE);
        rA = _mm256_or_pd(rA,vONE);
        rB = _mm256_or_pd(rB,vONE);

        c++;
    }

    r0 = _mm256_add_pd(r0,r1);
    r2 = _mm256_add_pd(r2,r3);
    r4 = _mm256_add_pd(r4,r5);
    r6 = _mm256_add_pd(r6,r7);
    r8 = _mm256_add_pd(r8,r9);
    rA = _mm256_add_pd(rA,rB);

    r0 = _mm256_add_pd(r0,r2);
    r4 = _mm256_add_pd(r4,r6);
    r8 = _mm256_add_pd(r8,rA);

    r0 = _mm256_add_pd(r0,r4);
    r0 = _mm256_add_pd(r0,r8);

    //  Prevent Dead Code Elimination
    double out = 0;
    __m256d temp = r0;
    out += ((double*)&temp)[0];
    out += ((double*)&temp)[1];
    out += ((double*)&temp)[2];
    out += ((double*)&temp)[3];

    return out;
}

void test_dp_mac_AVX(int tds,uint64 iterations){

    double *sum = (double*)malloc(tds * sizeof(double));
    double start = omp_get_wtime();

#pragma omp parallel num_threads(tds)
    {
        double ret = test_dp_mac_AVX(1.1,2.1,iterations);
        sum[omp_get_thread_num()] = ret;
    }

    double secs = omp_get_wtime() - start;
    uint64 ops = 48 * 1000 * iterations * tds * 4;
    cout << "Seconds = " << secs << endl;
    cout << "FP Ops  = " << ops << endl;
    cout << "FLOPs   = " << ops / secs << endl;

    double out = 0;
    int c = 0;
    while (c < tds){
        out += sum[c++];
    }

    cout << "sum = " << out << endl;
    cout << endl;

    free(sum);
}

int main(){
    //  (threads, iterations)
    test_dp_mac_AVX(8,10000000);

    system("pause");
}

Output (1 thread, 10000000 iterations) - Compiled with Visual Studio 2010 SP1 - x64 Release:

Seconds = 57.4679
FP Ops  = 1920000000000
FLOPs   = 3.34099e+010
sum = 4.45305

Theoretical AVX peak is 8 flops * 4.4 GHz = 35.2 GFlops. Actual is 33.4 GFlops.

Output (8 threads, 10000000 iterations) - Compiled with Visual Studio 2010 SP1 - x64 Release:

Seconds = 111.119
FP Ops  = 15360000000000
FLOPs   = 1.3823e+011
sum = 35.6244

Theoretical AVX peak is 8 flops * 4 cores * 4.4 GHz = 140.8 GFlops. Actual is 138.2 GFlops.

Now for some explanations:

The performance critical part is obviously the 48 instructions inside the inner loop. You'll notice that it's broken into 4 blocks of 12 instructions each. Each of these 12 instructions blocks are completely independent from each other - and take on average 6 cycles to execute.

So there's 12 instructions and 6 cycles between issue-to-use. The latency of multiplication is 5 cycles, so it's just enough to avoid latency stalls.

The normalization step is needed to keep the data from over/underflowing. This is needed since the do-nothing code will slowly increase/decrease the magnitude of the data.

So it's actually possible to do better than this if you just use all zeros and get rid of the normalization step. However, since I wrote the benchmark to measure power consumption and temperature, I had to make sure the flops were on "real" data, rather than zeros - as the execution units may very well have special case-handling for zeros that use less power and produce less heat.

More Results:

Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.5 GHz
Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Visual Studio 2010 SP1 - x64 Release

Threads: 1

Seconds = 72.1116
FP Ops  = 960000000000
FLOPs   = 1.33127e+010
sum = 2.22652

Theoretical SSE Peak: 4 flops * 3.5 GHz = 14.0 GFlops. Actual is 13.3 GFlops.

Threads: 8

Seconds = 149.576
FP Ops  = 7680000000000
FLOPs   = 5.13452e+010
sum = 17.8122

Theoretical SSE Peak: 4 flops * 4 cores * 3.5 GHz = 56.0 GFlops. Actual is 51.3 GFlops.

My processor temps hit 76C on the multi-threaded run! If you runs these, be sure the results aren't affected by CPU throttling.

2 x Intel Xeon X5482 Harpertown @ 3.2 GHz
Ubuntu Linux 10 x64
GCC 4.5.2 x64 - (-O2 -msse3 -fopenmp)

Threads: 1

Seconds = 78.3357
FP Ops  = 960000000000
FLOPs   = 1.22549e+10
sum = 2.22652

Theoretical SSE Peak: 4 flops * 3.2 GHz = 12.8 GFlops. Actual is 12.3 GFlops.

Threads: 8

Seconds = 78.4733
FP Ops  = 7680000000000
FLOPs   = 9.78676e+10
sum = 17.8122

Theoretical SSE Peak: 4 flops * 8 cores * 3.2 GHz = 102.4 GFlops. Actual is 97.9 GFlops.

Best Answer

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Warning:

Let's take this one step further. AVX...

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