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Releases: gnuradio/volk

Release v3.1.2

25 Feb 09:39
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Hi everyone!

This is the VOLK v3.1.2 release! We want to thank all contributors.
This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

The last maintenance release revealed issues in areas that are difficult to test.
While the changes to the library should be minimal, usability should be improved.
Most notably, we build and deploy the VOLK documentation
automatically now.

Contributors

Changes

  • Documentation improvements, and automatically generate and publish
    • docs: Add VOLK doc build to CI
    • docs: Add upload to GitHub actions
    • cpu_features: Update hints in README
  • Remove sse2neon with a native NEON implementation
    • Replace sse2neon with native NEON
    • Remove loop unrolling
    • Simplify Spiral-generated code
  • Improve CI pipeline with new runner
    • flyci: Test CI service with M2 instance
    • actions: Update GH Actions checkout
  • Auto-format CMake files
    • cmake: Add .cmake-format.py
    • cmake: Apply .cmake-format.py
  • Release script fixes
    • scripts/release: fix multi-concatenation of submodule tars
    • shellcheck fixes
    • bash negative exit codes are not portable, let's be positive

Release v3.1.1

29 Jan 20:38
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Hi everyone!

This is the VOLK v3.1.1 release! We want to thank all contributors. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

This is a maintenance release to fix subtle bugs in many areas and to improve our tests where possible. All in all, our CI is more stable now and catches more errors.

Contributors

Clayton Smith [email protected]
Johannes Demel [email protected], [email protected]
Kenji Rikitake [email protected]
Philip Balister [email protected]

Changes

  • CI fixes

    • Allow for rounding error in float-to-int conversions
    • Allow for rounding error in volk_32fc_s32f_magnitude_16i
    • Allow for rounding error in float-to-int interleave
    • Add missing volk_16_byteswap_u_orc to puppet
    • Fix 64-bit integer testing
    • Build and test neonv7 protokernels on armv7
  • kernels

    • Remove broken sse32 kernels
    • Fix flaky fm_detect test
    • Fix flaky mod_range test
    • Remove unnecessary volatiles from volk_32fc_s32f_magnitude_16i
    • Remove SSE protokernels written in assembly
    • Remove inline assembler from volk_32fc_convert_16ic_neon
    • Use bit shifts in generic and byte_shuffle reverse
    • Remove disabled SSE4.1 dot product
    • Fix conv_k7_r2 kernel and puppet
    • Remove unused argument from renormalize
    • Align types in ORC function signatures
    • Uncomment AVX2 implementation
    • Renormalize in every iteration on AVX2
    • Remove extraneous permutations
    • Compute the minimum over both register lanes
    • volk_32fc_s32f_atan2_32f: Add NaN tests for avx2 and avx2fma code
  • fixes

    • Express version information in decimal
    • Remove __VOLK_VOLATILE
    • Remove references to simdmath library
    • cmake: Switch to GNUInstallDirs
    • fprintf: Remove fprintf statements from volk_malloc
    • release: Prepare release with updated files
    • Get the sse2neon.h file to a git submodule to avoid random copies.

Release v3.1.0

05 Dec 20:34
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Hi everyone!

This is the VOLK v3.1.0 release! We want to thank all contributors. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

This release introduces new kernels, fixes a lot of subtle bugs, and introduces an updated API that allows VOLK to run on PowerPC and MIPS platforms without issues. Namely, complex scalar values are passed to kernels by pointer instead of by value. The old API is still around and will be for the whole VOLK v3 release cycle. However, it is recommended to switch to the new API for improved compatibility. Besides, we saw improvements to our cpu_features usage that should make it easier for package maintainers. Finally, a lot of tests received fixes that allow our CI to run without hiccups.

Contributors

Changes

  • Build and dependency updates
    - omit build path
    - cmake: Link to cpu_features only in BUILD_INTERFACE
    - cpu_features: Update submodule pointer and new CMake target name
    - cmake: Removed duplicated logic
    - cmake: Do not install cpu_features with volk
    - Use CMake target in one more place
    - Fix typo in the CMake target name
    - Use CpuFeatures target
    - Use cpu_features on RISC-V platforms
    - cpu_features: Update submodule pointer
    - Add UBSAN to ASAN builds

  • CI fixes
    - Add length checks to volk_8u_x2_encodeframepolar_8u
    - Fix flaky qa_volk_32f_s32f_convertpuppet_8u
    - Use absolute tolerance for stddev_and_mean
    - Use absolute tolerance for sum_of_poly kernel
    - Add length checks to conv_k7 kernels
    - Fix variable name in dot product kernels
    - Fix buffer overflow in volk_32fc_x2_square_dist_32f_a_sse3
    - Increase tolerance for volk_32f_log2_32f
    - Re-enable tests on aarch64 clang-14
    - Fix undefined behaviour in volk_8u_x4_conv_k7_r2_8u
    - Fix undefined behaviour in volk_32u_reverse_32u
    - Fix aligned loads and stores in unaligned kernels
    - Fix register size warnings in reverse kernel
    - Fix undefined behaviour in dot product kernels
    - Use an absolute tolerance to test the dot product kernels
    - Always initialize returnValue
    - Add length checks to puppets
    - Add carriage return to error message
    - Include ORC in neonv8 machine definition
    - Add back volk_32f_exp_32f test
    - Generate random integers with uniform_int_distribution
    - Fix puppet master name for volk_32u_popcnt
    - Avoid integer overflow in volk_8ic_x2_multiply_conjugate_16ic corner case
    - Use a reasonable scalar and tolerance for spectral_noise_floor
    - Increase volk_32f_x2_dot_prod_16i tolerance to 1
    - Increase tolerance for the power_spectrum test
    - Decrease the range for signed 16-bit integer testing
    - Use a puppet to pass positive values to volk_32f_x2_pow_32f
    - Use absolute tolerances for accumulator and dot product
    - Fix AppVeyor git checkout

  • new kernel API
    - Use pointers to pass in s32fc arguments
    - The old API is deprecated but will be available for the foreseeable future

  • updated kernels
    - Remove unused ORC code
    - Prefer NEON kernels over ORC
    - Require all kernels to have a generic implementation
    - Remove redundant a_generic kernels
    - Remove ORC kernels that use sqrtf
    - reverse: Rename dword_shuffle to generic
    - volk_32f_s32f_convert_8i: code style
    - volk_32fc_x2_divide_32fc: add documentation about numerical accuracy
    - kernel: Refactor 32f_s32f_multiply_32f kernel
    - kernel: Refactor 32f_x2_subtract_32f kernel
    - convert 32f->32i: fix compiler warnings about loss of int precision
    - 64u_ byteswape: remove buggy Neonv8 protokernel
    - 64u_ byteswape: remove buggy Neon protokernel
    - Remove broken volk_16i_max_star_16i_neon protokernel
    - Fix truncate-toward-zero distortion
    - Fix encodepolar documentation

  • new kernels
    - add volk_32f_s32f_x2_convert_8u kernel
    - Fix documentation for the clamp kernel
    - added new kernel: volk_32f_s32f_x2_clamp
    - new kernels for atan2
    - Add 32f_s32f_multiply_32f RISC-V manually optimized assembly
    - Add .size to volk_32f_s32f_multiply_32f_sifive_u74
    - Add volk_32fc_x2_dot_prod_32fc_sifive_u74

Release v3.0.0

14 Jan 17:44
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Hi everyone!

This is the VOLK v3.0.0 major release! This release marks the conclusion of a long lasting effort to complete GREP 23 that proposes to change the VOLK license to LGPLv3+. We would like to thank all VOLK contributors that they allowed this re-licensing effort to complete. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

For VOLK users it is important to not that the VOLK API does NOT change in this major release. After a series of discussion we are convinced a license change justifies a major release. Thus, you may switch to VOLK 3 and enjoy the additional freedom the LGPL offers.

Motivation for the switch to LGPLv3+

We want to remove usage entry barriers from VOLK. As a result, we expect greater adoption and a growing user and contributor base of VOLK. This move helps to spread the value of Free and Open Source Software in the SIMD community, which so far is dominated by non-FOSS software. Moreover, we recognize the desire of our long term contributors to be able to use VOLK with their contributions in their projects. This may explicitly include proprietary projects. We want to enable all contributors to be able to use VOLK wherever they want. At the same time, we want to make sure that improvements to VOLK itself are easily obtained by everyone, i.e. strike a balance between permissiveness and strict copyleft.

Since VOLK is a library it should choose a fitting license. If we see greater adoption of VOLK in more projects, we are confident that we will receive more contributions. May it be bug fixes, new kernels or even contributions to core features.

Historically, VOLK was part of GNU Radio. Thus, it made total sense to use GPLv3+ just like GNU Radio. Since then, VOLK became its own project with its own repository and leadership. While it is still a core dependency of GNU Radio and considers GNU Radio as its main user, others may want to use it too. Especially, long term VOLK contributors may be able to use VOLK in a broader set of projects now.

After a fruitful series of discussions we settled on the LGPLv3+. We believe this license strikes a good balance between permissiveness and strict copyleft for VOLK. We hope to foster contributions to VOLK. Furthermore, we hope to see VOLK usage in a wider set of projects.

Contributors

The VOLK 3.0.0 release is only possible because all contributors helped to make it possible. Thus, we omit a list of contributors that contributed since the last release.
Instead we want to thank everyone again!

Changes

  • License switch to LGPLv3+
  • Fix build for 32 bit arm with neon
  • Add experimental support for MIPS and RISC-V

Release v2.5.2

04 Sep 15:54
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[2.5.2] - 2022-09-04

Hi everyone!

We have a new VOLK release! We are happy to announce VOLK v2.5.2! We want to thank all contributors. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

We are happy to announce that our re-licensing effort is complete. This has been a long and challenging journey. Being technical: There are 3 people left (out of 74) who we haven't been able to get in contact with (at all), for a total of 4 (out of 1092) commits, 13 (of 282822) additions, and 7 (of 170421) deletions. We have reviewed these commits and all are simple changes (e.g., 1 line change) and most are no longer relevant (e.g., to a file that no longer exists). VOLK maintainers are in agreement that the combination -- small numbers of changes per committer, simple changes per commit, commits no longer relevant -- means that we can proceed with re-licensing without the approval of the folks. We will try reaching out periodically to these folks, but we believe it unlikely we will get a reply.

This maintainance release is intended to be the last VOLK 2.x release. After we completed our re-licensing effort, we want to make a VOLK 3.0 release soon. VOLK 3.0 will be fully compatible with VOLK 2.x on a technical level. However, VOLK 3+ will be released under LGPL. We are convinced a license change justifies a major release.

Contributors

Changes

  • Android
    • Add Android CI
    • Fix armeabi-v7a on Android
  • CI
    • Update all test jobs to more recent actions
  • volk_8u_x4_conv_k7_r2_8u
    • Add NEON implementation neonspiral via sse2neon.h
  • Fixes
    • Fix out-of-bounds reads
    • Fix broken neon kernels
    • Fix float to int conversion
  • CMake
    • Suppress superfluous warning
    • Fix Python install path calculation and documentation
  • cpu_features
    • Update submodule pointer
  • VOLK 3.0 release preparations
    • Use SPDX license identifiers everywhere
    • Re-arrange files in top-level folder
    • Update Doxygen and all Doxygen related tasks into docs

Release v2.5.1

12 Feb 10:13
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[2.5.1] - 2022-02-12

Hi everyone!

We have a new VOLK release! We are happy to announce VOLK v2.5.1! We want to thank all contributors. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

The list of contributors is pretty long this time due to a lot of support to relicense VOLK under LGPL. Currently, we are "almost there" but need a few more approvals, please support us. We thank everyone for their support in this effort.

We use cpu_features for a while now. This maintainance release should make it easier for package maintainers, FreeBSD users, and M1 users to use VOLK. Package maintainers should be able to use an external cpu_features module. For everyone else, cpu_features received support for M1 and FreeBSD.

You can find VOLK on Zenodo DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3360942.
We started to actively support Zenodo now via a .zenodo.json file. This might come in handy for people who use VOLK in publications. As a contributor, if you want more information about yourself added to VOLK, feel free to add your ORCiD and affiliation.

In the past, we relied on Boost for several tasks in volk_profile. For years, we minimized Boost usage to boost::filesystem. We mostly switched to C++17 std::filesystem years ago. The last distribution in our CI system that required Boost to build VOLK, was Ubuntu 14.04. Thus, now is the time to remove the Boost dependency completely and rely on C++17 features.

Some VOLK kernels are untested for years. We decided to deprecate these kernels but assume that nobody uses them anyways. If your compiler spits out a warning that you use a deprecated kernel, get in touch. Besides, we received fixes for various kernels. Especially FEC kernels are notoriously difficult to debug because issues often pop up as performance regressions.

Finally, we saw a lot of housekeeping in different areas. Scripts to support us in our LGPL relicensing effort, updated docs, and updated our code of conduct. We could remove some double entries in our QA system and fixed a volk_malloc bug that ASAN reported.
Finally, we switched to the Python sysconfig module in our build system to ensure Python 3.12+ does not break our builds.

Contributors

Changes

  • Kernels

    • Fixup underperforming GENERIC kernel for volk_8u_x4_conv_k7_r2_8u
    • volk_32fc_x2_conjugate_dot_prod_32fc: New generic implementation
    • Add volk_32f(c)_index_min_16/32u
    • Fix volk_32fc_index_min_32u_neon
    • Fix volk_32fc_index_min_32u_neon
  • Misc

    • Fix volk_malloc alignment bug
    • qa: Remove repeating tests
    • python: Switch to sysconfig module
    • deprecate: Add attribute deprecated
    • deprecate: Exclude warnings on Windows
    • docs: Update docs
    • Add the list of contributors agreeing to LGPL licensing
    • Add a script to count the lines that are pending resubmission
    • Testing: Add test for LGPL licensing
    • Update CODE_OF_CONDUCT file
  • Boost

    • boost: Remove boost dependency
    • c++: Require C++17 for std::filesystem
  • cpu_features
    cpu_features: Update submodule pointer
    cpu_features: Make cpu_features submodule optional

  • Zenodo
    zenodo: Add metadata file
    zenodo: Re-organize .zenodo.json

Release v2.5.0

05 Jun 11:12
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[2.5.0] - 2021-06-05

Hi everyone!

We have a new VOLK release! We are happy to announce VOLK v2.5.0! We want to thank all contributors. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

This release adds new kernel implementations and fixes. Some of these were longstanding PRs that could only be merged recently thanks to our switch from CLA to DCO.

Announcements

I would like to point out one upcoming change. After this release, we will rename our development branch to main as discussed in issue #461.

I'd like to point the community to this VOLK relicensing GREP.
This is an ongoing effort to relicense VOLK under LGPLv3.
We're looking for people and organizations that are interested in leading this effort.

Contributors

Changes

  • Kernels

    • volk_32f_stddev_and_mean_32f_x2: implemented Young and Cramer's algorithm
    • volk_32fc_accumulator_s32fc: Add new kernel
    • volk_16ic_x2_dot_prod_16ic_u_avx2: Fix Typo, was _axv2.
    • Remove _mm256_zeroupper() calls
    • Enforce consistent function prototypes
    • 32fc_index_max: Improve speed of AVX2 version
    • conv_k7_r2: Disable broken AVX2 code
    • improve volk_8i_s32f_convert_32f for ARM NEON
    • Calculate cos in AVX512F
    • Calculate sin using AVX512F
  • Compilers

    • MSVC
      • Fix MSVC builds
    • GCC
      • Fix segmentation fault when using GCC 8
    • MinGW
      • add support and test for MinGW/MSYS2
  • The README has received several improvements

  • Build

    • Fix python version detection
    • cmake: Check that 'distutils' is available
    • c11: Remove pre-C11 preprocessor instructions
  • CI

    • Add more CI to GitHub Actions
    • Remove redundant tests from TravisCI
    • Add non-x86 GitHub Actions
    • Update compiler names in CI
    • Disable fail-fast CI
    • Add more debug output to tests
  • Contributing

    • contributing: Add CONTRIBUTING.md and DCO.txt

Release v2.4.1

17 Dec 16:00
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[2.4.1] - 2020-12-17

Hi everyone!

We have a new VOLK bugfix release! We are happy to announce VOLK v2.4.1! We want to thank all contributors. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

Our v2.4.0 release introduced quite a lot of changes under the hood. With this bugfix release, we want to make sure that everything works as expected again.

Contributors

Changes

  • Build

    • cpu_features CMake option
    • Add cpu_features to static library build.
    • Use static liborc-0.4 library for static library build.
    • cmake: Detect if cpu_features submodule is present.
  • Install

    • Check for lib64 versus lib and set LIB_SUFFIX accordingly.
  • CI

    • Add CI test for static library build.
  • Releases

    • project: Include git submodules (i.e. cpu_features) in release tarball.
    • scripts: Add GPG signature to release script
  • Other

    • readme: Update TravisCI status badge

Release v2.4.0

22 Nov 16:39
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[2.4.0] - 2020-11-22

Hi everyone!

We have another VOLK release! We're happy to announce VOLK v2.4.0! We want to thank all contributors. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.

We introduce cpu_features as a private submodule in this release because we use it to detect CPU features during runtime now. This should enable more reliable feature detection. Further, it takes away the burden to implement platform specific code. As a result, optimized VOLK kernels build for MacOS and Windows with AppleClang/MSVC out-of-the-box now.

Highlights

  • Documentation

    • Update README to be more verbose and to improve usefulness.
  • Compilers

    • MSVC: Handle compiler flags and thus architecture specific kernels correctly. This enables optimized kernels with MSVC builds.
    • AppleClang: Treat AppleClang as Clang.
    • Paired with the cpu_features introduction, this enables us to use architecture specific kernels on a broader set of platforms.
  • CI

    • Update to newest version of the Intel SDE
    • Test the rotator kernel with a realistic scalar
    • Introduce more test cases with newer GCC and newer Clang versions.
  • CMake

    • Enable to not install volk_modtool.
    • Remove "find_package_handle_standard_args" warning.
  • cpu_features

    • Use cpu_features v0.6.0 as a private submodule to detect available CPU features.
    • Fix incorrect feature detection for newer AVX versions.
    • Circumvent platform specific feature detection.
    • Enable more architecture specific kernels on more platforms.
  • Kernels

    • Disable slow and broken SSE4.1 kernel in volk_32fc_x2_dot_prod_32fc
    • Adjust min/max for 32f_s32f_convert_8i kernel
    • Use INT8_* instead of CHAR_*

Contributors

Changes

  • Documentation

    • Update README to include ldconfig upon volk build and install completion
    • Update README based on review
    • readme: Fix wording
    • docs: Fix conversion inaccuracy
  • MSVC

    • archs: MSVC 2013 and greater don't have a SSE flag
  • CI

    • update to newest version of the Intel SDE
    • Test the rotator kernel with a realistic scalar
  • CMake

    • build: Enable to not install volk_modtool
    • cmake: Remove "find_package_handle_standard_args" warning.
    • cmake: Ensure that cpu_features is built as a static library.
  • cpu_features

    • readme: Add section on supported platforms
    • readme: Make supported compiler section more specific
    • travis: Add GCC 9 test on focal
    • travis: Add tests for clang 8, 9, 10
    • travis: Fix incorrect CXX compiler assignment
    • cpu_features: Remove unused feature checks
    • ci: Update TravisCI for cpu_features
    • cpu_features: Fix MSVC build
    • pic: Fix BUILD_PIC issue
    • ci: Update CI system configuration
    • cpu_features: Bump submodule pointer to v0.6.0
    • docs: Add hints how to handle required submodules
    • cpu_features: Switch to cpu_features
    • ci: Update CI system for cpu_features
    • cpu_features: Force PIC build flag
    • appveyor: Add recursive clone command
    • cpu_features: Remove xgetbv checks
    • pic: Cache and force BUILD_PIC
    • ci: Remove explicit BUILD_PIC from cmake args
    • ci: Remove BUILD_PIC from CI cmake args
    • cpu_features: Remove commented code
    • cpu_features: Assume AppleClang == Clang
    • cpu_features: Remove obsolete code in archs.xml
    • fix for ARM cross-compiling CI
    • ARM CI: remove unneeded environment variables
  • Housekeeping

    • structure: Move release scripts to scripts folder
  • Kernels

    • emit an emms instruction after using the mmx extension
    • volk_32fc_x2_dot_prod_32fc: disable slow & broken SSE4.1 kernel
    • fix: Adjust min/max for 32f_s32f_convert_8i kernel
    • fix: Use INT8_* instead of CHAR_*

Release v2.3.0

09 May 11:06
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[2.3.0] - 2020-05-09

Hi everyone!

VOLK 2.3 is out! We want to thank all contributors. This release wouldn't have been possible without them. We saw lots of great improvements.

On GNU Radio 'master' VOLK was finally removed as a submodule.

Currently we see ongoing discussions on how to improve CPU feature detection because VOLK is not as reliable as we'd like it to be in that department. We'd like to benefit from other open source projects and don't want to reinvent the wheel. Thus, one approach would be to include cpu_features as a submodule.

Highlights

  • Better reproducible builds
  • CMake improvements
    • ORC is removed from the public interface where it was never supposed to be.
    • CMake fixes for better usability
  • Updated and new CI chain
    • TravisCI moved to new distro and does more tests for newer GCC/Clang
    • Github Actions
      • Add Action to check proper code formatting.
      • Add CI that also runs on MacOS with XCode.
  • Enforce C/C++ coding style via clang-format
  • Kernel fixes
    • Add puppet for power_spectral_density kernel
    • Treat the mod_range puppet as a puppet for correct use with volk_profile
    • Fix index_max kernels
    • Fix rotator. We hope that we finally found the root cause of the issue.
  • Kernel optimizations
    • Updated log10 calcs to use faster log2 approach
    • Optimize complexmultiplyconjugate
  • New kernels
    • accurate exp kernel is finally merged after years
    • Add 32f_s32f_add_32f kernel to perform vector + scalar float operation

Contributors

Changes

  • Reproducible builds
    • Drop compile-time CPU detection
    • Drop another instance of compile-time CPU detection
  • CI updates
    • ci: Add Github CI Action
    • ci: Remove Ubuntu 16.04 GCC5 test on TravisCI
    • TravisCI: Update CI to bionic distro
    • TravisCI: Add GCC 8 test
    • TravisCI: Structure CI file
    • TravisCI: Clean-up .travis.yml
  • Enforce C/C++ coding style
    • clang-format: Apply clang-format
    • clang-format: Update PR with GitHub Action
    • clang-format: Rebase onto current master
  • Fix compiler warnings
    • shadow: rebase kernel fixes
    • shadow: rebase volk_profile fix
  • CMake
    • cmake: Remove the ORC from the VOLK public link interface
    • versioning: Remove .Maint from libvolk version
    • Fix endif macro name in comment
  • Kernels
    • volk: accurate exp kernel
      • exp: Rename SSE4.1 to SSE2 kernel
    • Add 32f_s32f_add_32f kernel
      • This kernel adds in vector + scalar functionality
    • Fix the broken index max kernels
    • Treat the mod_range puppet as such
    • Add puppet for power spectral density kernel
    • Updated log10 calcs to use faster log2 approach
    • fix: Use unaligned load
    • divide: Optimize complexmultiplyconjugate