Embedded system designers using the Linux® operating system (OS) can now
leverage AltiVec™ technology to boost the performance of their networking
and communications applications. Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has created a
downloadable source-code library of AltiVec technology-enabled functions that
are frequently used in the Linux OS. The code library (AltiVec technology-
enabled equivalents of the Linux string.S and checksum.S files) is designed to
help Linux OS developers enhance the speed and efficiency of their
applications based on the Motorola G4 processor containing PowerPC™ cores,
without upgrading to higher processor speeds.
Motorola has demonstrated a 100 percent improvement in CPU efficiency by employing AltiVec technology-enabled memory copying and checksum calculation functions in the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol stacks within the Linux Kernel. A 50 percent reduction in CPU utilization has been achieved while delivering a TCP bulk data transfer stream at near Gigabit speed — with no modifications to the Linux TCP/IP stack and with minimal modifications to the sockets layer routines. The existing sockets layer functions were modified to call the AltiVec technology-enabled memcpy and checksum functions from this library.