ucstrncmp: refactor with 32- and 8-byte loads

First of all, this removes the UB that used to try and calculate the
distance between the two strings. That's a valid technique in assembly,
but dangerous in C++ and totally unnecessary. The compiler is perfectly
able to generate loops with a single induction variable all on its own.

Second, this commit makes the main loop use 32-byte comparisons (16
characters at a time), which is a reasonable size for strings. We use
AVX2 if that's available, or an unrolled pair of 16-byte loads
otherwise. After the existing 16-byte comparison, this commit inserts an
8-byte (4-character) comparison and then reduces the final, unrolled
comparison to just 3 characters.

Change-Id: Ib48364abee9f464c96c6fffd152e474b39e1f293
Reviewed-by: Allan Sandfeld Jensen <allan.jensen@qt.io>

1 files changed, 56 insertions, 16 deletions

diff --git a/src/corelib/tools/qstring.cpp b/src/corelib/tools/qstring.cpp
index b2dcb6d8da..bcc94e260a 100644
--- a/src/corelib/tools/qstring.cpp
+++ b/src/corelib/tools/qstring.cpp
@@ -646,30 +646,70 @@ static int ucstrncmp(const QChar *a, const QChar *b, size_t l)
     }
 #endif // __mips_dsp
 #ifdef __SSE2__
-    const char *ptr = reinterpret_cast<const char*>(a);
-    qptrdiff distance = reinterpret_cast<const char*>(b) - ptr;
-    a += l & ~7;
-    b += l & ~7;
-    l &= 7;
-
-    // we're going to read ptr[0..15] (16 bytes)
-    for ( ; ptr + 15 < reinterpret_cast<const char *>(a); ptr += 16) {
-        __m128i a_data = _mm_loadu_si128((const __m128i*)ptr);
-        __m128i b_data = _mm_loadu_si128((const __m128i*)(ptr + distance));
+    const QChar *end = a + l;
+    qptrdiff offset = 0;
+
+    // we're going to read a[0..15] and b[0..15] (32 bytes)
+    for ( ; a + offset + 16 <= end; offset += 16) {
+#ifdef __AVX2__
+        __m256i a_data = _mm256_loadu_si256(reinterpret_cast<const __m256i *>(a + offset));
+        __m256i b_data = _mm256_loadu_si256(reinterpret_cast<const __m256i *>(b + offset));
+        __m256i result = _mm256_cmpeq_epi16(a_data, b_data);
+        uint mask = _mm256_movemask_epi8(result);
+#else
+        __m128i a_data1 = _mm_loadu_si128(reinterpret_cast<const __m128i *>(a + offset));
+        __m128i a_data2 = _mm_loadu_si128(reinterpret_cast<const __m128i *>(a + offset + 8));
+        __m128i b_data1 = _mm_loadu_si128(reinterpret_cast<const __m128i *>(b + offset));
+        __m128i b_data2 = _mm_loadu_si128(reinterpret_cast<const __m128i *>(b + offset + 8));
+        __m128i result1 = _mm_cmpeq_epi16(a_data1, b_data1);
+        __m128i result2 = _mm_cmpeq_epi16(a_data2, b_data2);
+        uint mask = _mm_movemask_epi8(result1) | (_mm_movemask_epi8(result2) << 16);
+#endif
+        mask = ~mask;
+        if (mask) {
+            // found a different character
+            uint idx = qCountTrailingZeroBits(mask);
+            return a[offset + idx / 2].unicode() - b[offset + idx / 2].unicode();
+        }
+    }
+
+    // we're going to read a[0..7] and b[0..7] (16 bytes)
+    if (a + offset + 8 <= end) {
+        __m128i a_data = _mm_loadu_si128(reinterpret_cast<const __m128i *>(a + offset));
+        __m128i b_data = _mm_loadu_si128(reinterpret_cast<const __m128i *>(b + offset));
         __m128i result = _mm_cmpeq_epi16(a_data, b_data);
         uint mask = ~_mm_movemask_epi8(result);
         if (ushort(mask)) {
-            // found a different byte
+            // found a different character
             uint idx = qCountTrailingZeroBits(mask);
-            return reinterpret_cast<const QChar *>(ptr + idx)->unicode()
-                    - reinterpret_cast<const QChar *>(ptr + distance + idx)->unicode();
+            return a[offset + idx / 2].unicode() - b[offset + idx / 2].unicode();
         }
+
+        offset += 8;
     }
+
+    // we're going to read a[0..3] and b[0..3] (8 bytes)
+    if (a + offset + 4 <= end) {
+        __m128i a_data = _mm_loadl_epi64(reinterpret_cast<const __m128i *>(a + offset));
+        __m128i b_data = _mm_loadl_epi64(reinterpret_cast<const __m128i *>(b + offset));
+        __m128i result = _mm_cmpeq_epi16(a_data, b_data);
+        uint mask = ~_mm_movemask_epi8(result);
+        if (uchar(mask)) {
+            // found a different character
+            uint idx = qCountTrailingZeroBits(mask);
+            return a[offset + idx / 2].unicode() - b[offset + idx / 2].unicode();
+        }
+
+        offset += 4;
+    }
+
+    // reset l
+    l &= 3;
+
     const auto lambda = [=](size_t i) -> int {
-        return reinterpret_cast<const QChar *>(ptr)[i].unicode()
-                - reinterpret_cast<const QChar *>(ptr + distance)[i].unicode();
+        return a[offset + i].unicode() - b[offset + i].unicode();
     };
-    return UnrollTailLoop<7>::exec(l, 0, lambda, lambda);
+    return UnrollTailLoop<3>::exec(l, 0, lambda, lambda);
 #endif
 #if defined(__ARM_NEON__) && defined(Q_PROCESSOR_ARM_64) // vaddv is only available on Aarch64
     if (l >= 8) {