SSE scalars, intrinsics and transition to "float"...

[tbp <tbptbp at gmail dot com>]

Let me put that in the proper context.

Say you're on x86, using something in the vein of "-mfpmath=sse", and
gcc does a great job mixing fpu & sse operations. And you want to join
the fun at some point with your own ie dot product which returns a
scalar disguised as a vector.

But you cannot cast that scalar back to a regular float ("cannot
convert `float __vector__' to `const float' in initialization") to
make the junction with the rest. And going throught memory would kill
any benefit.
So you end up rewriting a larger section with intrinsics etc...

That's a major hinderance and what's really annoying is that gcc
obviously knows how to handle those scalar-in-a-vector but i don't
know how to tell him where to look.
Any help apreciated.

tbp.

PS: kudos for the work already done, gcc shines with intrinsics.