optimization Tips (for libavcodec): What to optimize: If you plan to do non-x86 architecture specific optimizations (SIMD normally), then take a look in the i386/ directory, as most important functions are already optimized for MMX. If you want to do x86 optimizations then you can either try to finetune the stuff in the i386 directory or find some other functions in the C source to optimize, but there aren't many left. Understanding these overoptimized functions: As many functions tend to be a bit difficult to understand because of optimizations, it can be hard to optimize them further, or write architecture-specific versions. It is recommened to look at older revisions of the interesting files (for a web frontend try ViewVC at http://svn.mplayerhq.hu/ffmpeg/trunk/). Alternatively, look into the other architecture-specific versions in the i386/, ppc/, alpha/ subdirectories. Even if you don't exactly comprehend the instructions, it could help understanding the functions and how they can be optimized. NOTE: If you still don't understand some function, ask at our mailing list!!! (http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-devel) WTF is that function good for ....: The primary purpose of that list is to avoid wasting time to optimize functions which are rarely used put(_no_rnd)_pixels{,_x2,_y2,_xy2} Used in motion compensation (en/decoding). avg_pixels{,_x2,_y2,_xy2} Used in motion compensation of B-frames. These are less important than the put*pixels functions. avg_no_rnd_pixels* unused pix_abs16x16{,_x2,_y2,_xy2} Used in motion estimation (encoding) with SAD. pix_abs8x8{,_x2,_y2,_xy2} Used in motion estimation (encoding) with SAD of MPEG-4 4MV only. These are less important than the pix_abs16x16* functions. put_mspel8_mc* / wmv2_mspel8* Used only in WMV2. it is not recommended that you waste your time with these, as WMV2 is an ugly and relatively useless codec. mpeg4_qpel* / *qpel_mc* Used in MPEG-4 qpel motion compensation (encoding & decoding). The qpel8 functions are used only for 4mv, the avg_* functions are used only for B-frames. Optimizing them should have a significant impact on qpel encoding & decoding. qpel{8,16}_mc??_old_c / *pixels{8,16}_l4 Just used to work around a bug in an old libavcodec encoder version. Don't optimize them. tpel_mc_func {put,avg}_tpel_pixels_tab Used only for SVQ3, so only optimize them if you need fast SVQ3 decoding. add_bytes/diff_bytes For huffyuv only, optimize if you want a faster ffhuffyuv codec. get_pixels / diff_pixels Used for encoding, easy. clear_blocks easiest to optimize gmc Used for MPEG-4 gmc. Optimizing this should have a significant effect on the gmc decoding speed. gmc1 Used for chroma blocks in MPEG-4 gmc with 1 warp point (there are 4 luma & 2 chroma blocks per macroblock, so only 1/3 of the gmc blocks use this, the other 2/3 use the normal put_pixel* code, but only if there is just 1 warp point). Note: DivX5 gmc always uses just 1 warp point. pix_sum Used for encoding. hadamard8_diff / sse / sad == pix_norm1 / dct_sad / quant_psnr / rd / bit Specific compare functions used in encoding, it depends upon the command line switches which of these are used. Don't waste your time with dct_sad & quant_psnr, they aren't really useful. put_pixels_clamped / add_pixels_clamped Used for en/decoding in the IDCT, easy. Note, some optimized IDCTs have the add/put clamped code included and then put_pixels_clamped / add_pixels_clamped will be unused. idct/fdct idct (encoding & decoding) fdct (encoding) difficult to optimize dct_quantize_trellis Used for encoding with trellis quantization. difficult to optimize dct_quantize Used for encoding. dct_unquantize_mpeg1 Used in MPEG-1 en/decoding. dct_unquantize_mpeg2 Used in MPEG-2 en/decoding. dct_unquantize_h263 Used in MPEG-4/H.263 en/decoding. FIXME remaining functions? BTW, most of these functions are in dsputil.c/.h, some are in mpegvideo.c/.h. Alignment: Some instructions on some architectures have strict alignment restrictions, for example most SSE/SSE2 instructions on x86. The minimum guaranteed alignment is written in the .h files, for example: void (*put_pixels_clamped)(const DCTELEM *block/*align 16*/, UINT8 *pixels/*align 8*/, int line_size); Links: http://www.aggregate.org/MAGIC/ x86-specific: http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium4/manuals/248966.htm The IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium4/manuals/245471.htm http://www.agner.org/assem/ AMD Athlon Processor x86 Code Optimization Guide: http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/white_papers_and_tech_docs/22007.pdf ARM-specific: ARM Architecture Reference Manual: http://www.arm.com/community/academy/resources.html Instructions timings and optimization guide for ARM9E: http://www.arm.com/pdfs/DDI0222B_9EJS_r1p2.pdf PowerPC-specific: PowerPC32/Altivec PIM: www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/ref_manual/ALTIVECPEM.pdf PowerPC32/Altivec PEM: www.freescale.com/files/32bit/doc/ref_manual/ALTIVECPIM.pdf CELL/SPU: http://www-01.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/techdocs/30B3520C93F437AB87257060006FFE5E/$file/Language_Extensions_for_CBEA_2.4.pdf http://www-01.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/techdocs/9F820A5FFA3ECE8C8725716A0062585F/$file/CBE_Handbook_v1.1_24APR2007_pub.pdf SPARC-specific: SPARC Joint Programming Specification (JPS1): Commonality http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/PRMPWR/JPS1-R1.0.4-Common-pub.pdf UltraSPARC III Processor User's Manual (contains instruction timings) http://www.sun.com/processors/manuals/USIIIv2.pdf VIS Whitepaper (contains optimization guidelines) http://www.sun.com/processors/vis/download/vis/vis_whitepaper.pdf GCC asm links: official doc but quite ugly http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Extended-Asm.html a bit old (note "+" is valid for input-output, even though the next disagrees) http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~clc5q/gcc-inline-asm.pdf