On: BOOM v2: an open-source out-of-order RISC-V core

[_chris_]

I was using Coremark in that report, which is what ARM used to market their cores. The 32b ARMv7 cores have NEON SIMD, but I believe no FMAs, whereas BOOM is 64b and includes double-precision FMA units.

Also there's no current RISC-V extension for SIMD or vector ops, so I didn't maliciously "omit" things to "totally rig" the comparison. But even running SPECint is not going to fire up the SIMD unit.

[pertymcpert → _chris_]

Uhhh yes ARMv7 NEON has vector FMAs.

SPEC with modern compilers will definitely use SIMD, utilization on hot regions is variable but it's definitely beneficial.

[adrian_b → pertymcpert]

Not all ARMv7 have FMA, only the newer models.

Models with FMA: Cortex-M4, Cortex-M7, Cortex-A5, Cortex-A7, Cortex-A15, Cortex-A17. I do not remember which Cortex-R have FMA. Models without FMA: Cortex-A8, Cortex-A9.