Optimizing Query Engines with Compiler-Intrinsics for SIMD Instructions

2023/08/15

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The article discusses the use of SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) instructions in query engines to improve performance. Traditionally, developers have had to write multiple versions of code to support different SIMD instruction sets on various platforms. This leads to code duplication, making it difficult to test and benchmark. However, the article suggests leveraging the compiler's platform-independent SIMD vector abstraction to write a single code variant for all platforms. This approach eliminates the need for redundant layers of abstraction found in SIMD libraries. The article presents microbenchmarks conducted on x86 and ARM architectures, showing that compiler-intrinsic variants achieve comparable or even better performance than platform-specific intrinsics. Additionally, the article highlights a case study where the SIMD library in the query engine Velox was replaced with compiler-intrinsics, resulting in improved performance with significantly less SIMD code and fewer variants. This approach offers developers a more efficient and streamlined way to optimize query engines for SIMD instructions.