Bringing SIMD to the Web via Dart
Why Hacker News recommends it
Pointed to as the original talk by the author of the SIMD-in-JavaScript proposal, whenever SIMD on the web comes up.
What it is
John McCutchan of Google explains how Dart and the Dart VM expose SIMD instructions to speed up web software. He covers what SIMD is and how it applies to graphics and games.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2013 to 2014.
What Hacker News said
Recommends ahoge · 2014-06 · on “Intel Bringing SIMD to JavaScript”
Check "Bringing SIMD to the Web via Dart" by John McCutchan: [this video] He's also the guy wrote the proposal for ECMAScript: [LINK] Also, using SIMD is way easier than using shaders. You just write something like this: double average (Float32x4List list) { var n = list.length; var sum = new Float32x4.zero(); for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) { sum += list[i]; } var total = sum.x + sum.y + sum.z + sum.w; return total / (n * 4); } Instead of: double average (Float32List list) { var n = list.length; var sum = 0.0; for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) { sum += list[i]; } return sum / n; }
Cites michaelwww · 2013-03 · on “Why or why not Dart?”
Why Dart? SIMD - Single Instruction Multiple Data - Speeds up things like WebGL, added to Dart VM, not available in JavaScript except through an experimental technique in FireFox [this video]
Cites mythz · 2013-04 · on “Core libraries stabilize with Dart's new M4 release”
They've also published a new RayTracer OO benchmark showing the Dart VM far out performing V8: [LINK] Guessing being able to use native SIMD instructions inside the Dart VM should help with gaming and other graphics intensive apps: [this video]