cpp_simd_detector

A single-header, cross-platform C++23 utility which detects supported SIMD instruction sets on the host CPU and operating system.

• Portable; tested on Windows, MacOS, and Linux.
• Cross-ISA; Supports both x86-64 and ARM64.
• No external dependencies; written in pure C++23.
• Correctly detects OS support as well as processor support for SIMD instruction sets; this is necessary to ensure that SIMD registers are properly saved and restored upon context switches.

Sample Output

For an Intel Raptor Lake processor, cpp_simd_detector outputs

128-bit SIMD Instruction Sets:
SSE                  = true
SSE2                 = true
SSE3                 = true
SSSE3                = true
SSE4.1               = true
SSE4.2               = true

256-bit SIMD Instruction Sets:
AVX                  = true
AVX2                 = true

512-bit SIMD Instruction Sets:
AVX512_F             = false
AVX512_DQ            = false
AVX512_IFMA          = false
AVX512_PF            = false
AVX512_ER            = false
AVX512_CD            = false
AVX512_BW            = false
AVX512_VL            = false
AVX512_VBMI          = false
AVX512_VBMI2         = false
AVX512_VNNI          = false
AVX512_BITALG        = false
AVX512_VPOPCNTDQ     = false
AVX512_4VNNIW        = false
AVX512_4FMAPS        = false
AVX512_VP2INTERSECT  = false
AVX512_FP16          = false

ARM Instruction Sets:
NEON                 = false

x86 Extensions:
PCLMULQDQ            = true
FMA3                 = true

General Usage

cpp_simd_detector provides two methods for general use:

1. simd_detector::is_supported checks if a given InstructionSet is supported on the host CPU and operating system. This is useful for creating basic conditional logic based on host SIMD support.
2. simd_detector::detect_supported_instruction_sets returns a 64-bit bitmask containing support information for every InstructionSet; this is useful for verifying more complex support requirements.

InstructionSet is an enumeration which lists all instruction sets/extensions detectable by cpp_simd_detector. Currently, InstructionSet includes

• SSE instruction sets: Up to SSE4.2, including SSSE3
• AVX instruction sets: Up to AVX2
• AVX-512: AVX-512 Foundation, and all standard AVX-512 features
• x86 Extensions: x86 Bit Manipulation Instruction sets, FMA3, and Carryless Multiplication instructions
• ARM instruction sets: NEON

How to Build

This project uses CMake as its build system, so it follows the usual CMake workflow:

1. From the project directory, create a build directory (mkdir build).
2. From build, run cmake .. to configure the build.
3. Finally, build the project; if the previous step generated Makefiles, for instance, then use the command make.