Re: Fix powerpc fmax, fmin sNaN handling (bug 20947) [committed]

[Steven Munroe <munroesj at linux dot vnet dot ibm dot com>]

On Fri, 2016-12-16 at 17:41 +0000, Joseph Myers wrote:
> On Fri, 16 Dec 2016, Steven Munroe wrote:
> 
> > > This patch fixes the powerpc versions of these functions (shared by
> > > float and double, 32-bit and 64-bit).  The structure of those versions
> > > is that all ordered cases are already handled before anything dealing
> > > with the case where the arguments are unordered; thus, this patch
> > > causes no change to the code executed in the common case (neither
> > > argument a NaN).
> > > 
> > This patch, as is, will cause a sever performance regression for
> > power6/7/8 and should be fixed or reverted before 2.25 freezes.
> 
> A general assumption in libm functions is that NaN inputs are an uncommon 
> case and performance for NaN inputs is not of much importance; the code 
> for NaN inputs should just aim for correctness and simplicity.  I think 
> people calling fmax or fmin generally want the maximum or minimum of two 
> finite numbers.
> 
Well sometimes your assumptions don't survive the the next customer
defined benchmark.

Regardless, what I stated are principles, generally applicable to recent
POWER systems, and anyone make changes to POWER platform code should be
aware of these facts.

> As I said, there is no change to the code executed for the normal case of 
> non-NaN inputs, so I see no reason for performance in the common case to 
> be affected.  Of course performance improvements for the NaN case are 
> still welcome (and that sort of small local fix would seem perfectly 
> suitable to go in during the freeze if architecture maintainers think it 
> appropriate).
> 
> If the presence of this code for the NaN case somehow affects the 
> performance of non-NaN case, please let me know; it wasn't meant to do so.
>