[eigen] Eigen containers cannot be vectorized

[Francois Fayard <fayard@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I have found that Eigen containers cannot be vectorized. For instance, the following code:

#include <Eigen/Dense>

void f(Eigen::Matrix<Eigen::Index, Eigen::Dynamic, Eigen::Dynamic>& A) {

  for (Eigen::Index j = 0; j < A.cols(); ++j) {

    for(Eigen::Index i = 0; i < A.rows(); ++i) {

      A(i, j) = i + j;

    }

  }

}

is not vectorized by the Intel compiler. It says that the iteration count cannot be computed before the execution of the loop.

It is due to the fact that A is made of:

Eigen::Index* data_;

Eigen::Index cols_;

Eigen::Index rows_;

The compiler has no way of knowing that data_ does not point to rows_. As a consequence, it does not know that the operation A(i, j) = i + j does not change the number of rows of A. As a consequence, the loop is not countable and cannot be vectorized.

One way to fix this, would be to store the number of columns as a pointer. If cols_ becomes a Eigen::Index* such that the number of columns is cols_ - data_, the problems get fixed, and compilers can know vectorize the inner loop.

Best regards,

François Fayard
Founder & Consultant - Inside Loop

Applied Mathematics & High Performance Computing
Tel: +33 (0)6 01 44 06 93
Web: www.insideloop.io

PS: I have found that if you change the type to double, it does not get vectorized too, but I have no idea why.