ARM v8 NEON Explorer

A Socratic exploration of ARM v8 SIMD instructions using the NEON architecture.

Overview

This project provides a structured approach to learning and experimenting with ARM NEON SIMD programming through a Socratic method. Instead of just presenting code examples, it guides you through discovering how SIMD works on ARM architectures by asking questions and exploring implementations.

Features

• Cross-platform support (Raspberry Pi, Apple Silicon, FreeBSD, Android)
• Comprehensive testing framework for SIMD operations
• Performance comparison between scalar and SIMD implementations
• Interactive explorer tool for experimentation
• Docker-based development environment for consistent testing
• Detailed documentation with a Socratic learning approach

Requirements

• ARMv8-A compatible processor (aarch64/ARM64)
• GCC or Clang compiler with ARM NEON support
• Make for building
• (Optional) Docker for containerized development

Getting Started

Building Directly

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/aygp-dr/armv8-neon-explorer.git
cd armv8-neon-explorer

# Install prerequisites
./prerequisites.sh

# Build the project
make all

# Run tests
make test

# Run examples
./bin/vector_add_example
./bin/dot_product_example

Using Docker

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/aygp-dr/armv8-neon-explorer.git
cd armv8-neon-explorer

# Build the Docker container
./container.sh build

# Start a shell in the container
./container.sh shell

# Build and run within the container
make all
make test

Project Structure

• src/ - Core SIMD operation implementations
• include/ - Header files and utility functions
• examples/ - Example programs demonstrating SIMD usage
• tests/ - Test suite for verification
• tools/ - Development and helper tools
• docs/ - Documentation and references

Documentation

Detailed documentation is available in the docs/ directory:

• ARM NEON Quick Reference
• Learning Approach
• Performance Considerations

Interactive Explorer

The project includes an interactive tool for experimenting with NEON operations:

# Build the explorer
make -C tools

# Run the explorer
./tools/neon_explorer

Use help command within the explorer for available operations.

Learning Path

This project follows a Socratic approach to learning:

1. Start with the basic vector operations in examples/vector_add_example.c
2. Progress to more complex operations like dot products
3. Explore advanced image processing techniques
4. Understand performance considerations and trade-offs
5. Experiment with your own SIMD implementations

License

MIT License

Contact

Aidan Pace - apace@defrecord.com