I have this simple functions: int sum_vec(int c, ...) { va_list argptr; va_start(argptr, c); int sum = 0; while (c--) { int x = va_arg(argptr, int); sum += x; } va_end(argptr); return sum; }
When compiling with "-fomit-frame-pointer -Os -march=68000 -c -S -mshort" I get this assembly (I have manually added comments with clock cycles per instruction and a total for a count of 0, 8 and n>0): .even .globl _sum_vec _sum_vec: lea (6,%sp),%a0 | 8 move.w 4(%sp),%d1 | 12 clr.w %d0 | 4 jra .L1 | 12 .L2: add.w (%a0)+,%d0 | 8 .L1: dbra %d1,.L2 | 16,12 rts | 16 | c==0: 8+12+4+12+12+16=64 | c==8: 8+12+4+12+(16+8)*8+12+16=256 | c==n: =64+24n When instead compiling with "-fomit-frame-pointer -O3 -march=68000 -c -S -mshort" I expect to get more aggressive optimisation than -Os, or at least just as performant, but instead I get this: .even .globl _sum_vec _sum_vec: move.w 4(%sp),%d0 | 12 jeq .L2 | 12,8 lea (6,%sp),%a0 | 8 subq.w #1,%d0 | 4 and.l #65535,%d0 | 16 add.l %d0,%d0 | 8 lea 8(%sp,%d0.l),%a1 | 16 clr.w %d0 | 4 .L1: add.w (%a0)+,%d0 | 8 cmp.l %a0,%a1 | 8 jne .L1 | 12|8 rts | 16 .L2: clr.w %d0 | 4 rts | 16 | c==0: 12+12+4+16=44 | c==8: 12+8+8+4+16+8+16+4+(8+8+12)*4-4+16=316 | c==n: =88+28n The count==0 case is better. I can see what optimisation has been tried for the loop, but it just not working since both the ini for the loop and the loop itself becomes more costly. Being a GCC beginner I would like a few pointers as to how I should go about to fix this? // Fredrik