15. The HyperDrive Technology
The HyperDrive is a core library including several time-critical functions required by VEGA ZZ for high speed computing. The incredible computational speed is due to the linear and parallel code specially designed for the modern CPUs.
The key features are:
Hardware independent.
You can develop the same application for IRIX, Linux and Windows without
specific code.
Same software for single or
multiprocessor systems.
The library checks the number of CPUs and automatically switches itself from
sequential to parallel mode.
Intel’s Hyper Threading
ready
It uses the full power of the HyperThreading technology implemented by Intel
in the latest Pentium IV processor family.
Dual core CPU ready
The latest dual core CPUs provided by AMD and Intel are detected and the
parallel execution is automatically enabled.
No special compiler required.
You can use your preferred C/C++ compiler. Special symmetrical
multiprocessor (SMP) extension aren’t required.
The HyperDrive requires an initialization phase that is executed by the host application when it starts. The host application can choose the appropriate HyperDrive version for the installed microprocessor and the HyperDrive detects the number of CPUs switching itself to run in sequential mode (one CPU) or in parallel mode (more than one CPU):
After the initialization phase, the host application can call the HyperDrive functions in transparent mode as a normal library: the HyperDrive library select internally the most appropriate code for that hardware/software system and if it has got more than one CPU (real or virtual as the CPUs with the Hyper Threading) the code is parallel executed:
The HyperDrive library includes high, middle and low level functions:
High |
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Middle |
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Low |
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