<s>
Visual	B-General_Concept
Instruction	I-General_Concept
Set	I-General_Concept
,	O
or	O
VIS	O
,	O
is	O
a	O
SIMD	B-Device
instruction	O
set	O
extension	O
for	O
SPARC	B-Architecture
V9	I-Architecture
microprocessors	B-Architecture
developed	O
by	O
Sun	O
Microsystems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VIS	O
1	O
was	O
introduced	O
in	O
1994	O
and	O
was	O
first	O
implemented	O
by	O
Sun	O
in	O
their	O
UltraSPARC	B-General_Concept
microprocessor	B-Architecture
(	O
1995	O
)	O
and	O
by	O
Fujitsu	O
in	O
their	O
SPARC64	B-General_Concept
GP	I-General_Concept
microprocessors	B-Architecture
(	O
2000	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VIS	O
2	O
was	O
first	O
implemented	O
by	O
the	O
UltraSPARC	B-General_Concept
III	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
All	O
subsequent	O
UltraSPARC	B-General_Concept
and	O
SPARC64	O
microprocessors	B-Architecture
implement	O
the	O
instruction	O
set	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VIS	O
3	O
was	O
first	O
implemented	O
in	O
the	O
SPARC	B-Device
T4	I-Device
microprocessor	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
VIS	O
4	O
was	O
first	O
implemented	O
in	O
the	O
SPARC	B-Device
M7	I-Device
microprocessor	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
VIS	O
is	O
not	O
an	O
instruction	O
toolkit	O
like	O
Intel	O
's	O
MMX	B-Architecture
and	O
SSE	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
MMX	B-Architecture
has	O
only	O
8	O
registers	O
shared	O
with	O
the	O
FPU	B-General_Concept
stack	O
,	O
while	O
SPARC	B-Architecture
processors	O
have	O
32	O
registers	O
,	O
also	O
aliased	O
to	O
the	O
double-precision	O
(	O
64-bit	O
)	O
floating	O
point	O
registers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
with	O
the	O
SIMD	B-Device
instruction	O
set	O
extensions	O
on	O
other	O
RISC	B-Architecture
processors	I-Architecture
,	O
VIS	O
strictly	O
conforms	O
to	O
the	O
main	O
principle	O
of	O
RISC	B-Architecture
:	O
keep	O
the	O
instruction	O
set	O
concise	O
and	O
efficient	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
design	O
is	O
very	O
different	O
from	O
comparable	O
extensions	O
on	O
CISC	B-Architecture
processors	I-Architecture
,	O
such	O
as	O
MMX	B-Architecture
,	O
SSE	B-General_Concept
,	O
SSE2	B-General_Concept
,	O
SSE3	B-General_Concept
,	O
SSE4	B-General_Concept
,	O
3DNow	B-General_Concept
!	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Sometimes	O
,	O
programmers	O
must	O
use	O
several	O
VIS	O
instructions	O
to	O
accomplish	O
an	O
operation	O
that	O
can	O
be	O
done	O
with	O
only	O
one	O
MMX	B-Architecture
or	O
SSE	B-General_Concept
instruction	O
,	O
but	O
it	O
should	O
be	O
kept	O
in	O
mind	O
that	O
fewer	O
instructions	O
do	O
not	O
automatically	O
result	O
in	O
better	O
performance	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
VIS	O
re-uses	O
existing	O
SPARC	B-Architecture
V9	I-Architecture
64-bit	O
floating	O
point	O
registers	O
to	O
hold	O
multiple	O
8	O
,	O
16	O
,	O
or	O
32-bit	O
integer	O
values	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
this	O
respect	O
,	O
VIS	O
is	O
more	O
similar	O
to	O
the	O
design	O
of	O
MMX	B-Architecture
than	O
other	O
SIMD	B-Device
architectures	O
such	O
as	O
SSE/SSE2/AltiVec	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
These	O
include	O
3D	O
to	O
2D	O
conversion	O
,	O
edge	B-Algorithm
processing	I-Algorithm
and	O
pixel	O
distance	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Use	O
the	O
mediaLib	B-Language
multimedia	O
library	O
,	O
which	O
has	O
C	O
function	O
interfaces	O
.	O
</s>
