C Extensions

The Android NDK comes with the GCC compiler (version 4.4.3 in release 7 of the NDK). As a consequence, you are able to use the C extensions the GNU Compiler Collection supports. Among the ones that are particularly interesting, as far as performance is concerned, are:

  • Built-in functions
  • Vector instructions

NOTE: Visit http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C-Extensions.html for an exhaustive list of the GCC C extensions.

Built-in Functions

Built-in functions, sometimes referred to as intrinsics, are functions handled in a special manner by the compiler. Built-in functions are often used to allow for some constructs the language does not support, and are often inlined, that is, the compiler replaces the call with a series of instructions ...

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