Faster way to zero memory than with memset?

Question

I learned that memset(ptr, 0, nbytes) is really fast, but is there a faster way (at least on x86)?

I assume that memset uses mov, however w

Answer 1

memset could be inlined by compiler as a series of efficient opcodes, unrolled for a few cycles. For very large memory blocks, like 4000x2000 64bit framebuffer, you can try optimizing it across several threads (which you prepare for that sole task), each setting its own part. Note that there is also bzero(), but it is more obscure, and less likely to be as optimized as memset, and the compiler will surely notice you pass 0.

What compiler usually assumes, is that you memset large blocks, so for smaller blocks it would likely be more efficient to just do *(uint64_t*)p = 0, if you init large number of small objects.

Generally, all x86 CPUs are different (unless you compile for some standardized platform), and something you optimize for Pentium 2 will behave differently on Core Duo or i486. So if you really into it and want to squeeze the last few bits of toothpaste, it makes sense to ship several versions your exe compiled and optimized for different popular CPU models. From personal experience Clang -march=native boosted my game's FPS from 60 to 65, compared to no -march.

Answer 2

That's an interesting question. I made this implementation that is just slightly faster (but hardly measurable) when 32-bit release compiling on VC++ 2012. It probably can be improved on a lot. Adding this in your own class in a multithreaded environment would probably give you even more performance gains since there are some reported bottleneck problems with memset() in multithreaded scenarios.

// MemsetSpeedTest.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
//

#include "stdafx.h"
#include <iostream>
#include "Windows.h"
#include <time.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "Winmm.lib") 
using namespace std;

/** a signed 64-bit integer value type */
#define _INT64 __int64

/** a signed 32-bit integer value type */
#define _INT32 __int32

/** a signed 16-bit integer value type */
#define _INT16 __int16

/** a signed 8-bit integer value type */
#define _INT8 __int8

/** an unsigned 64-bit integer value type */
#define _UINT64 unsigned _INT64

/** an unsigned 32-bit integer value type */
#define _UINT32 unsigned _INT32

/** an unsigned 16-bit integer value type */
#define _UINT16 unsigned _INT16

/** an unsigned 8-bit integer value type */
#define _UINT8 unsigned _INT8

/** maximum allo

wed value in an unsigned 64-bit integer value type */
    #define _UINT64_MAX 18446744073709551615ULL

#ifdef _WIN32

/** Use to init the clock */
#define TIMER_INIT LARGE_INTEGER frequency;LARGE_INTEGER t1, t2;double elapsedTime;QueryPerformanceFrequency(&frequency);

/** Use to start the performance timer */
#define TIMER_START QueryPerformanceCounter(&t1);

/** Use to stop the performance timer and output the result to the standard stream. Less verbose than \c TIMER_STOP_VERBOSE */
#define TIMER_STOP QueryPerformanceCounter(&t2);elapsedTime=(t2.QuadPart-t1.QuadPart)*1000.0/frequency.QuadPart;wcout<<elapsedTime<<L" ms."<<endl;
#else
/** Use to init the clock */
#define TIMER_INIT clock_t start;double diff;

/** Use to start the performance timer */
#define TIMER_START start=clock();

/** Use to stop the performance timer and output the result to the standard stream. Less verbose than \c TIMER_STOP_VERBOSE */
#define TIMER_STOP diff=(clock()-start)/(double)CLOCKS_PER_SEC;wcout<<fixed<<diff<<endl;
#endif    


void *MemSet(void *dest, _UINT8 c, size_t count)
{
    size_t blockIdx;
    size_t blocks = count >> 3;
    size_t bytesLeft = count - (blocks << 3);
    _UINT64 cUll = 
        c 
        | (((_UINT64)c) << 8 )
        | (((_UINT64)c) << 16 )
        | (((_UINT64)c) << 24 )
        | (((_UINT64)c) << 32 )
        | (((_UINT64)c) << 40 )
        | (((_UINT64)c) << 48 )
        | (((_UINT64)c) << 56 );

    _UINT64 *destPtr8 = (_UINT64*)dest;
    for (blockIdx = 0; blockIdx < blocks; blockIdx++) destPtr8[blockIdx] = cUll;

    if (!bytesLeft) return dest;

    blocks = bytesLeft >> 2;
    bytesLeft = bytesLeft - (blocks << 2);

    _UINT32 *destPtr4 = (_UINT32*)&destPtr8[blockIdx];
    for (blockIdx = 0; blockIdx < blocks; blockIdx++) destPtr4[blockIdx] = (_UINT32)cUll;

    if (!bytesLeft) return dest;

    blocks = bytesLeft >> 1;
    bytesLeft = bytesLeft - (blocks << 1);

    _UINT16 *destPtr2 = (_UINT16*)&destPtr4[blockIdx];
    for (blockIdx = 0; blockIdx < blocks; blockIdx++) destPtr2[blockIdx] = (_UINT16)cUll;

    if (!bytesLeft) return dest;

    _UINT8 *destPtr1 = (_UINT8*)&destPtr2[blockIdx];
    for (blockIdx = 0; blockIdx < bytesLeft; blockIdx++) destPtr1[blockIdx] = (_UINT8)cUll;

    return dest;
}

int _tmain(int argc, _TCHAR* argv[])
{
    TIMER_INIT

    const size_t n = 10000000;
    const _UINT64 m = _UINT64_MAX;
    const _UINT64 o = 1;
    char test[n];
    {
        cout << "memset()" << endl;
        TIMER_START;

        for (int i = 0; i < m ; i++)
            for (int j = 0; j < o ; j++)
                memset((void*)test, 0, n);  

        TIMER_STOP;
    }
    {
        cout << "MemSet() took:" << endl;
        TIMER_START;

        for (int i = 0; i < m ; i++)
            for (int j = 0; j < o ; j++)
                MemSet((void*)test, 0, n);

        TIMER_STOP;
    }

    cout << "Done" << endl;
    int wait;
    cin >> wait;
    return 0;
}

Output is as follows when release compiling for 32-bit systems:

memset() took:
5.569000
MemSet() took:
5.544000
Done

Output is as follows when release compiling for 64-bit systems:

memset() took:
2.781000
MemSet() took:
2.765000
Done

Here you can find the source code Berkley's memset(), which I think is the most common implementation.

Answer 3

If I remember correctly (from a couple of years ago), one of the senior developers was talking about a fast way to bzero() on PowerPC (specs said we needed to zero almost all the memory on power up). It might not translate well (if at all) to x86, but it could be worth exploring.

The idea was to load a data cache line, clear that data cache line, and then write the cleared data cache line back to memory.

For what it is worth, I hope it helps.