AltiVec vec_msum equivalent for float values

Question

Is anybody aware of a method to achieve vec_msum functionality against a vector of float values?

I'm quite new to SIMD, and although I think I'm starting to make sense of it - there are still a few puzzles.

My end goal is to rewrite the function "convolve_altivec" (as found in the accepted answer for this question) such that it accepts input parameters as float values, instead of short's.

That is, the prototype should be

float convolve_altivec(const float *a, const float *b, int n)

I'm trying to match the functionality provided by the original non-optimised function below:

float convolve(const float *a, const float *b, int n)
{
    float out = 0.f;
    while (n --)
        out += (*(a ++)) * (*(b ++));
    return out;
}

My initial efforts have seen me trying to port an existing SSE version of this same function to altivec instructions.

Answer 1

For a float version you need vec_madd.

Here's a float version of the previous 16 bit int version and test harness I posted in response to your earlier question:

#include <assert.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <altivec.h>

static float convolve_ref(const float *a, const float *b, int n)
{
    float sum = 0.0f;
    int i;

    for (i = 0; i < n; ++i)
    {
        sum += a[i] * b[i];
    }

    return sum;
}

static inline float convolve_altivec(const float *a, const float *b, int n)
{
    float sum = 0.0f;
    vector float vsum = { 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f, 0.0f };
    union {
        vector float v;
        float a[4];
    } usum;

    vector float *pa = (vector float *)a;
    vector float *pb = (vector float *)b;

    assert(((unsigned long)a & 15) == 0);
    assert(((unsigned long)b & 15) == 0);

    while (n >= 4)
    {
        vsum = vec_madd(*pa, *pb, vsum);
        pa++;
        pb++;
        n -= 4;
    }

    usum.v = vsum;

    sum = usum.a[0] + usum.a[1] + usum.a[2] + usum.a[3];

    a = (float *)pa;
    b = (float *)pb;

    while (n --)
    {
        sum += (*a++ * *b++);
    }

    return sum;
}

int main(void)
{
    const int n = 1002;

    vector float _a[n / 4 + 1];
    vector float _b[n / 4 + 1];

    float *a = (float *)_a;
    float *b = (float *)_b;

    float sum_ref, sum_test;

    int i;

    for (i = 0; i < n; ++i)
    {
        a[i] = (float)rand();
        b[i] = (float)rand();
    }

    sum_ref = convolve_ref(a, b, n);
    sum_test = convolve_altivec(a, b, n);

    printf("sum_ref = %g\n", sum_ref);
    printf("sum_test = %g\n", sum_test);

    printf("%s\n", fabsf((sum_ref - sum_test) / sum_ref) < 1.0e-6 ? "PASS" : "FAIL");

    return 0;
}