Fast search of some nibbles in two ints at same offset (C, microoptimisation)

Question

My task is to check (>trillions checks), does two int contain any of predefined pairs of nibbles (first pair 0x2 0x7; second 0xd 0x8). For example:

bit offset:           


        

Answer 1

The fastest solution is probably to use some kind of lookup table.

How constrained are you on memory? A 16 bit table would be 64K and let you test 4 nibbles at once. So 4 (1 for each nibble) of them would be 256K.

If I understand your problem, I think this will work. It's an 8 bit example -you can expand it to 16 bits. :

 /* Look for 0x2 in either nibble - hits on 0x02, 0x20, 0x22 */
 char table_0x2[] = {
     0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, /* 0x02 */
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, /* 0x20, 0x22 */
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
     0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
 };

 char table_0x7[] = { fill this in };
 char table_0xd[] = { fill this in };
 char table_0x8[] = { fill this in };

 int nibble_check (uint32_t A, uint32_t B)
 {

       int i;

       for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
           if ((table_0x2[A & 0xff] && table_0x7[B & 0xff]) ||
               (table_0xd[A & 0xff] && table_0x8[B & 0xff])) {
                  /*
                   * check to see if the A&B hits are in corresponding
                   * nibbles - return 1 or break
                   */
           }

           A = A >> 8;
           B = B >> 8;

       }
       return 0;
   }

Here's a better implementation:

 /* 16 bit tables - upper 8 bits are A, lower 8 bits are B */
 /* for 0x02, 0x07 */
 char *table_2_7;
 /* for 0x0d, 0x08 */
 char *table_d_8;

 void init(void)
 {
     int i;
     int j;

     /* error checking eliminated for brevity */
     table_2_7 = malloc(64 * 1024);
     table_d_8 = malloc(64 * 1024);

     memset(table_2_7, 0, 64 * 1024);
     memset(table_d_8, 0, 64 * 1024);

     for (i = 0 ; i < 16; i++) {
         for (j = 0 ; j < 16; j++) {
             table_2_7[(i << 12)   | (0x2 << 8)  | (j << 4)   | (0x7 << 0)] = 1;
             table_2_7[(0x2 << 12) | (i << 8)    | (0x7 << 4) | (j << 0)] = 1;

             table_d_8[(i << 12)   | (0xd << 8)  | (j << 4)    | (0x8 << 0)] = 1;
             table_d_8[(0xd << 12) | (i << 8)    | (0x8 << 4) | (j << 0)] = 1;
    }
}


 }

 int nibble_check(uint32_t A, uint32_t B)
 {
     int i;

     for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
         if (table_2_7[ ((A & 0xff) << 8) | (B & 0xff) ] ||
             table_d_8[ ((A & 0xff) << 8) | (B & 0xff) ]) {
             return 1;
         }

         A = A >> 8;
         B = B >> 8;

     }
     return 0;
 }