Enables Software-based Speculative Pre-computation (SSP) optimization.
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IA-32
| Linux: | -ssp |
| Windows: | /Qssp |
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| OFF | Software-based Speculative Pre-computation is not enabled. |
This option enables Software-based Speculative Pre-computation (SSP) optimization, which is also called Helper-Threading optimization. This feature provides a way to dynamically prefetch data cache blocks to counterbalance ever-increasing memory latency. It exploits the properties of source code constructs (such as delinquent loads and pointer-chasing loops) in applications.
SSP directly executes a subset of the original program instructions, called a slice, on separate threads alongside the main computation thread, in order to compute future memory accesses accurately. The helper threads run ahead of the main thread and trigger cache misses earlier on its behalf, thereby hiding the memory latency.
To be effective, SSP techniques require construction of efficient helper threads and processor-level support, such as Hyper-Threading Technology (HT Technology) support, which allows multiple threads to run concurrently. These techniques include:
The results of SSP vary because each program has a different profile and different opportunities for SSP optimizations. For guidelines to help you determine if you can benefit by using SSP, see topic "SSP Precomputation (IA-32)" in your Optimizing Guide.
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