On 06/06/2011 09:34 PM, Nicu Ionita wrote:
Hi,
Just to double check: that means, today it's not possible to generate 64 bit operations under Windows, including bit level .&., .|. a.s.o. (from Data.Bits), and this situation will stay like this for a while.
I'm asking this because I'm currently writing a pure Haskell chess engine based on bitboards. The bitboards are 64 bit wide and the basic operations are critical for speed, which is always critical in chess engines.
Then it looks I'll have to implement these operations in C and use FFI to link them.
No, 64-bit integer operations will /work/ just fine, regardless of what platform you're on. Whether it will take advantage of 64-bit operations at the machine-code level is another matter entirely. I'm not especially sure, but I think even in 32-bit mode, the x86 line of processors supports performing 64-bit operations via MMX, SSE or similar. Whether GHC is using that, I couldn't tell you. I suppose the ultimate answer is: Benchmark it, and see how fast it is.