In the _mm256_sllv_epi8 case, it isn't too difficult to replace the shifts by multiplications, using the pshufb instruction as a tiny lookup table. It is also possible to emulate the right shifting of _mm256_srlv_epi8 with multiplications and quite a few other instructions, see the code below. I would expect that at least _mm256_sllv_epi8 is more efficient than Nyan's solution.
More or less the same idea can be used to emulate _mm256_sllv_epi16, but in that case it is less trivial to select the right multiplier (see also code below).
The solution _mm256_sllv_epi16_emu below is not necessarily any faster, nor better, than Nyan's solution.
The performance depends on the surrounding code and on the CPU that is used.
Nevertheless, the solution here might be of interest, at least on older computer systems.
For example, the vpsllvd instruction is used twice in Nyan's solution. This instruction is fast on Intel Skylake systems or newer.
On Intel Broadwell or Haswell this instruction is slow, because it decodes to 3 micro-ops. The solution here avoids this slow instruction.
It is possible to skip the two lines of code with mask_lt_15, if the shift counts are known to be less than or equal to 15.
Missing intrinsic _mm256_srlv_epi16 is left as an exercise to the reader.
/* gcc -O3 -m64 -Wall -mavx2 -march=broadwell shift_v_epi8.c */
#include <immintrin.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int print_epi8(__m256i a);
int print_epi16(__m256i a);
__m256i _mm256_sllv_epi8(__m256i a, __m256i count) {
__m256i mask_hi = _mm256_set1_epi32(0xFF00FF00);
__m256i multiplier_lut = _mm256_set_epi8(0,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0, 128,64,32,16, 8,4,2,1, 0,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0, 128,64,32,16, 8,4,2,1);
__m256i count_sat = _mm256_min_epu8(count, _mm256_set1_epi8(8)); /* AVX shift counts are not masked. So a_i << n_i = 0 for n_i >= 8. count_sat is always less than 9.*/
__m256i multiplier = _mm256_shuffle_epi8(multiplier_lut, count_sat); /* Select the right multiplication factor in the lookup table. */
__m256i x_lo = _mm256_mullo_epi16(a, multiplier); /* Unfortunately _mm256_mullo_epi8 doesn't exist. Split the 16 bit elements in a high and low part. */
__m256i multiplier_hi = _mm256_srli_epi16(multiplier, 8); /* The multiplier of the high bits. */
__m256i a_hi = _mm256_and_si256(a, mask_hi); /* Mask off the low bits. */
__m256i x_hi = _mm256_mullo_epi16(a_hi, multiplier_hi);
__m256i x = _mm256_blendv_epi8(x_lo, x_hi, mask_hi); /* Merge the high and low part. */
return x;
}
__m256i _mm256_srlv_epi8(__m256i a, __m256i count) {
__m256i mask_hi = _mm256_set1_epi32(0xFF00FF00);
__m256i multiplier_lut = _mm256_set_epi8(0,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0, 1,2,4,8, 16,32,64,128, 0,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0, 1,2,4,8, 16,32,64,128);
__m256i count_sat = _mm256_min_epu8(count, _mm256_set1_epi8(8)); /* AVX shift counts are not masked. So a_i >> n_i = 0 for n_i >= 8. count_sat is always less than 9.*/
__m256i multiplier = _mm256_shuffle_epi8(multiplier_lut, count_sat); /* Select the right multiplication factor in the lookup table. */
__m256i a_lo = _mm256_andnot_si256(mask_hi, a); /* Mask off the high bits. */
__m256i multiplier_lo = _mm256_andnot_si256(mask_hi, multiplier); /* The multiplier of the low bits. */
__m256i x_lo = _mm256_mullo_epi16(a_lo, multiplier_lo); /* Shift left a_lo by multiplying. */
x_lo = _mm256_srli_epi16(x_lo, 7); /* Shift right by 7 to get the low bits at the right position. */
__m256i multiplier_hi = _mm256_and_si256(mask_hi, multiplier); /* The multiplier of the high bits. */
__m256i x_hi = _mm256_mulhi_epu16(a, multiplier_hi); /* Variable shift left a_hi by multiplying. Use a instead of a_hi because the a_lo bits don't interfere */
x_hi = _mm256_slli_epi16(x_hi, 1); /* Shift left by 1 to get the high bits at the right position. */
__m256i x = _mm256_blendv_epi8(x_lo, x_hi, mask_hi); /* Merge the high and low part. */
return x;
}
__m256i _mm256_sllv_epi16_emu(__m256i a, __m256i count) {
__m256i multiplier_lut = _mm256_set_epi8(0,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0, 128,64,32,16, 8,4,2,1, 0,0,0,0, 0,0,0,0, 128,64,32,16, 8,4,2,1);
__m256i byte_shuf_mask = _mm256_set_epi8(14,14,12,12, 10,10,8,8, 6,6,4,4, 2,2,0,0, 14,14,12,12, 10,10,8,8, 6,6,4,4, 2,2,0,0);
__m256i mask_lt_15 = _mm256_cmpgt_epi16(_mm256_set1_epi16(16), count);
a = _mm256_and_si256(mask_lt_15, a); /* Set a to zero if count > 15. */
count = _mm256_shuffle_epi8(count, byte_shuf_mask); /* Duplicate bytes from the even postions to bytes at the even and odd positions. */
count = _mm256_sub_epi8(count,_mm256_set1_epi16(0x0800)); /* Subtract 8 at the even byte positions. Note that the vpshufb instruction selects a zero byte if the shuffle control mask is negative. */
__m256i multiplier = _mm256_shuffle_epi8(multiplier_lut, count); /* Select the right multiplication factor in the lookup table. Within the 16 bit elements, only the upper byte or the lower byte is nonzero. */
__m256i x = _mm256_mullo_epi16(a, multiplier);
return x;
}
int main(){
printf("Emulating _mm256_sllv_epi8:\n");
__m256i a = _mm256_set_epi8(32,31,30,29, 28,27,26,25, 24,23,22,21, 20,19,18,17, 16,15,14,13, 12,11,10,9, 8,7,6,5, 4,3,2,1);
__m256i count = _mm256_set_epi8(7,6,5,4, 3,2,1,0, 11,10,9,8, 7,6,5,4, 3,2,1,0, 11,10,9,8, 7,6,5,4, 3,2,1,0);
__m256i x = _mm256_sllv_epi8(a, count);
printf("a = \n"); print_epi8(a );
printf("count = \n"); print_epi8(count);
printf("x = \n"); print_epi8(x );
printf("\n\n");
printf("Emulating _mm256_srlv_epi8:\n");
a = _mm256_set_epi8(223,224,225,226, 227,228,229,230, 231,232,233,234, 235,236,237,238, 239,240,241,242, 243,244,245,246, 247,248,249,250, 251,252,253,254);
count = _mm256_set_epi8(7,6,5,4, 3,2,1,0, 11,10,9,8, 7,6,5,4, 3,2,1,0, 11,10,9,8, 7,6,5,4, 3,2,1,0);
x = _mm256_srlv_epi8(a, count);
printf("a = \n"); print_epi8(a );
printf("count = \n"); print_epi8(count);
printf("x = \n"); print_epi8(x );
printf("\n\n");
printf("Emulating _mm256_sllv_epi16:\n");
a = _mm256_set_epi16(1601,1501,1401,1301, 1200,1100,1000,900, 800,700,600,500, 400,300,200,100);
count = _mm256_set_epi16(17,16,15,13, 11,10,9,8, 7,6,5,4, 3,2,1,0);
x = _mm256_sllv_epi16_emu(a, count);
printf("a = \n"); print_epi16(a );
printf("count = \n"); print_epi16(count);
printf("x = \n"); print_epi16(x );
printf("\n\n");
return 0;
}
int print_epi8(__m256i a){
char v[32];
int i;
_mm256_storeu_si256((__m256i *)v,a);
for (i = 0; i<32; i++) printf("%4hhu",v[i]);
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
int print_epi16(__m256i a){
unsigned short int v[16];
int i;
_mm256_storeu_si256((__m256i *)v,a);
for (i = 0; i<16; i++) printf("%6hu",v[i]);
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
The output is:
Emulating _mm256_sllv_epi8:
a =
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
count =
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
x =
1 4 12 32 80 192 192 0 0 0 0 0 13 28 60 128 16 64 192 0 0 0 0 0 25 52 108 224 208 192 192 0
Emulating _mm256_srlv_epi8:
a =
254 253 252 251 250 249 248 247 246 245 244 243 242 241 240 239 238 237 236 235 234 233 232 231 230 229 228 227 226 225 224 223
count =
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
x =
254 126 63 31 15 7 3 1 0 0 0 0 242 120 60 29 14 7 3 1 0 0 0 0 230 114 57 28 14 7 3 1
Emulating _mm256_sllv_epi16:
a =
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 1301 1401 1501 1601
count =
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 13 15 16 17
x =
100 400 1200 3200 8000 19200 44800 36864 33792 53248 12288 32768 40960 32768 0 0
Indeed some AVX2 instructions are missing.
However, note that it is not always a good idea fill these gaps by emulating the 'missing' AVX2 instructions. Sometimes it is
more efficient to redesign your code in such a way that these emulated instructions are avoided. For example, by working with wider vector
elements (_epi32 instead of _epi16), with native support.
