Runtime Dispatch Semantics

RsimdDispatch uses a single R shared library. All compiled variants are linked into that shared object, and a function pointer selects the active implementation.

This means backend switching is safe in one R process:

library(RsimdDispatch)
x <- as.raw(c(0, 1, 2, 3))

simd_set_backend("scalar")
count_nonzero(x)
#> [1] 3

candidate <- setdiff(simd_info()$available_backends, "scalar")[1]
if (!is.na(candidate)) {
  simd_set_backend(candidate)
  count_nonzero(x)
}
#> [1] 3

simd_set_backend("auto")
simd_backend()
#> [1] "avx2"

simd_set_backend() performs two checks for explicit choices:

There is intentionally no unsafe force mode. If a backend is not available, the setter errors before any SIMD-only instruction can execute.

simd_info()[c("compiled_backends", "cpu_supported_backends", "available_backends")]
#> $compiled_backends
#> [1] "scalar" "sse2"   "sse41"  "avx2"   "avx512"
#> 
#> $cpu_supported_backends
#> [1] "scalar" "sse2"   "sse41"  "avx2"  
#> 
#> $available_backends
#> [1] "scalar" "sse2"   "sse41"  "avx2"

SIMDe and native ISA compilation

The SIMD source files use SIMDe types and functions, but the backend names refer to native target-specific staged kernel objects. During configuration, each optional backend is accepted only if the compiler flag and SIMDe header together define the expected native SIMDe macro. For example, the AVX2 probe compiles with -mavx2, includes <simde/x86/avx2.h>, and requires SIMDE_X86_AVX2_NATIVE. AVX-512 similarly requires the native F, BW, and VL macros.

Those flags make the compiler define target macros such as __AVX2__ or __AVX512BW__. SIMDe maps those to SIMDE_ARCH_* and then to SIMDE_*_NATIVE; the SIMDe function bodies use native intrinsics under those macros and fall back only when the native macro is absent. The generated src/Makevars links the staged objects into the package shared library while the dispatcher, CPU feature detection, and R API are compiled by R’s ordinary src/Makevars path.

The installed diagnostics report the backends that passed the SIMDe-native compile probe:

simd_info()[c("compiled_backends", "simde_native_backends", "simde_version", "simde_commit")]
#> $compiled_backends
#> [1] "scalar" "sse2"   "sse41"  "avx2"   "avx512"
#> 
#> $simde_native_backends
#> [1] "sse2"   "sse41"  "avx2"   "avx512"
#> 
#> $simde_version
#> [1] "0.8.4"
#> 
#> $simde_commit
#> [1] "f3e8262173b7089db9a9d57a9ecef8dd07ad9c97"

Benchmarking backend switching

The following benchmark is evaluated when this article is built. It uses a small input so package checks remain fast, but it still exercises same-process backend switching through the public API.

if (requireNamespace("bench", quietly = TRUE)) {
  bench_x <- rep(as.raw(c(0, 1, 2, 3, 0, 255, 7, 0)), length.out = 2^20)

  bench <- bench::mark(
    scalar = {
      simd_set_backend("scalar")
      count_nonzero(bench_x)
    },
    auto = {
      simd_set_backend("auto")
      count_nonzero(bench_x)
    },
    iterations = 5,
    check = TRUE
  )

  simd_set_backend("auto")
  bench[, c("expression", "median", "itr/sec", "n_itr")]
}
#> # A tibble: 2 × 3
#>   expression   median `itr/sec`
#>   <bch:expr> <bch:tm>     <dbl>
#> 1 scalar      235.5µs     4309.
#> 2 auto         32.1µs    21184.

"auto" selects the best backend from the compiled and supported intersection. The current ranking is:

avx512 > avx2 > sse41 > sse2 > neon > scalar

Architecture guards mean x86 systems normally consider x86 backends and ARM systems normally consider NEON. Scalar is always available.