Re: PG 16 draft release notes ready - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Bruce Momjian
Subject Re: PG 16 draft release notes ready
Date
Msg-id ZG2QXMy3VsGIeV14@momjian.us
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: PG 16 draft release notes ready  (John Naylor <john.naylor@enterprisedb.com>)
Responses Re: PG 16 draft release notes ready
List pgsql-hackers
On Tue, May 23, 2023 at 12:14:04PM +0700, John Naylor wrote:
> On Tue, May 23, 2023 at 11:26 AM Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:
> >
> > On Tue, May 23, 2023 at 09:58:30AM +0700, John Naylor wrote:
> > > > Allow ASCII string detection to use vector operations on x86-64
> architectures
> > > (John Naylor)
> > > > Allow JSON string processing to use vector operations on x86-64
> architectures
> > > (John Naylor)
> > > >
> > > > ARM?
> > >
> > > Arm as well. For anything using 16-byte vectors the two architectures are
> > > equivalently supported. For all the applications, I would just say "vector"
> or
> > > "SIMD".
> >
> > Okay, I kept "vector".  I don't think moving them into performance makes
> > sense because there I don't think this would impact user behavior or
> > choice, and it can't be controlled.
> 
> Well, these two items were only committed because of measurable speed
> increases, and have zero effect on how developers work with "source code", so
> that's a category error.
> 
> Whether they rise to the significance of warranting inclusion in release notes
> is debatable.

Okay, let's dissect this.  First, I am excited about these features
because I think they show innovation, particularly for high scaling, so
I want to highlight this.

Second, you might be correct that the section is wrong.  I thought of
CPU instructions as something tied to the compiler, so part of the build
process or source code, but the point we should be make is that we have
these acceleration, not how it is implemented.  We can move the entire
group to the "General Performance" section, or we can split it out:

Keep in source code:

    Add support for SSE2 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 2) vector operations on
    x86-64 architectures (John Naylor)
    
    Add support for Advanced SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) (NEON)
    instructions on ARM architectures (Nathan Bossart)

move to General Performance:

    Allow xid/subxid searches to use vector operations (Nathan Bossart)

    Allow ASCII string detection to use vector operations (John Naylor)

and add these to data types:

    Allow JSON string parsing to use vector operations (John Naylor)

    Allow array searches to use vector operations (John Naylor)    

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EDB                                      https://enterprisedb.com

  Only you can decide what is important to you.



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