C/C++ language extensions (intrinsics)

A set of C-language extensions are available for PowerPC Processor Element (PPE) and Vector/SIMD Multimedia Extension programming.

These extensions include additional vector data types and a large set of scalar and vector commands (intrinsics). The intrinsics are essentially inline assembly-language instructions, in the form of function calls, that have syntax familiar to high-level programmers using the C language.

The intrinsics provide explicit control of the PPE or Vector/SIMD Multimedia Extension instructions without directly managing registers and scheduling instructions, as assembly-language programming requires. A compiler that supports these C-language extensions will emit code optimized for the PPE and/or the Vector/SIMD Multimedia Extension architecture.