SIMD

Definitions

1. Single Instruction, Multiple Data — a CPU capability that applies one operation to multiple data elements simultaneously. A single SIMD instruction can add 8 integers, compare 16 bytes, or multiply 4 floats at once. Implemented as SSE, AVX (x86), and NEON (ARM). Used automatically by compilers (auto-vectorization) or manually via intrinsics. Critical for media processing, ML, and compression.

   In plain English: A CPU feature that processes multiple pieces of data with a single instruction, like adding 8 numbers at once instead of one at a time.

   Example: "The JSON parser uses SIMD to scan 64 bytes at once looking for quote characters — 8x faster than checking byte by byte."

Related Terms

• DMA
• Overclocking
• Coforall
• Concurrency
• CPU Cache
• Branch Prediction
• NUMA
• NVMe
• Superscalar
• Worker Pool
• FLOPS
• On the Metal