On Thu, 28 Sep 2006, Tzi-cker Chiueh wrote:
We have considered the bound instruction in the CASH project. But we found that bound instruction is slower than the six normal instructions it is meant to replace for range checking. For example, the bound instruction on a 1.1 GHz PIII machine requires 7-8 clock cycles while the 6 equivalent instructions require 6-7 clock cycles. We have not tested it on newer processors, though.
I would guess it would be as slow or worse. 'bound' is an extremely rarely used instruction, and so will not be optimised-for at all.
Nick
