References

A Load-Hit-Store can happen in code, even when it looks like it shouldn't.

void foo(int &count)
{
count = 0;
for (int i=0;i<100;++i) {
if (Test(i)) {
++count;
}
}
}

That code generates a Load-Hit-Store. How?

The variable "count" is memory bound. All writes to it, and in many cases reads, go through memory. Anytime a variable is memory bound and in a tight loop, it can cause Load-Hit-Stores. A way of fixing this is similar to the previous code example.

void foo(int &output)
{
int count = 0;
for (int i=0;i<100;++i) {
if (Test(i)) {
++count;
}
}
output = count; // Write the result
}

VectorLoad-Hit-Store

The previous examples demonstrated how easy it is to cause Load-Hit-Store stalls with floating-point and integer transactions. The VMX register sets suffer from the same problem. It's common that some math operations could be done more efficiently in a VMX operation, but what if it involves non-vector data?

On the Xbox 360, the VMX register intrinsic __vector4 is mapped onto a structure. Run-time accessing of the elements of the structure should be discouraged for the reason below.

XMVECTOR Radius = CalcBounds();
pOut->fRadius = Radius.x;

The second line creates a Load-Hit-Store because the VMX register is used as a structure. As a result, the compiler has to write the contents of the entire register to local memory; then the first element is read with a floating-point register, and only then is the value written into pOut->fRadius.

Here is a way to write the same code without incurring the hidden Load-Hit-Store:

XMVECTOR Radius = CalcBounds();
__stvewx(&pout->fRadius,__vspltw(Radius,0),0);

VMX has the ability to write any specific entry as a single float. The vspltw() operation will copy the requested entry into a temp vector register and the stvewx() operation will handle the writing the float. Using the compiler's feature of accessing the value isn't recommended.