double take comics was a comic book imprint of the american multinational video game publisher and distributor take-two interactive .

it was founded in 2013 by former marvel publisher bill jemas .

the group closed in november 2016 .

its titles and characters were loosely inspired by the 1968 film night of the living dead .

lionsgate announced a film adaptation of z-men , double take 's best-selling title , in august 2016 .

double take comics

welcome to multiversity comics , a website written by people who love comics for people who love comics .
double take comics ; a revival of
night of the living dead
.
double take comics recently launched 10 ongoing series , all set in the town in “night of the living dead . ”
interestingly , lionsgate films recently optioned one of double take’s comics , “z - men” , for a major motion picture .
nterconnected universes are all the rage , and gaming publisher take - two interactive almost had its own . take - two’s comic imprint double take
bill jemas is the former president of marvel comics . in his latest venture as the gm for double take comics , bill has found the cure for the dearth of talent in the comic book world - moth storytellers .
double take , the new publishing company from video game company take two and former marvel publisher bill jemas , is formally launching their comics line in september - and doing it bigger than previously announced .
note : double take is an advertiser at multiversity comics . however , this is not paid content and this interview was set up prior to the advertising agreement .
universal monsters universe is really excited about double take comics’ developing universe . they’ve got a great creative and editorial team and an exciting set of books that can be found and picked up at your local comic shop . you could also check out more at double take universe .
in an interview with comic book resources , jemas said double take ' s plan is to post its comics to social media and eventually to digital comic distributors like comixology and madefire . later ,
traditional , gorgeous print versions
of the comics are planned , as is a kickstarter fundraising campaign to get those comics made .
the company ' s publishing imprint is called double take and is spearheaded by former marvel comics publisher bill jemas . double take ' s first three graphic novels , rise , insurrection and soul , are all set in the world of ( and feature characters from ) night of the living dead .
you’ve described a pretty daunting environment for a new publisher . what is your take on double take’s business model in that tough environment that you’ve just described ?
double take also launched a kickstarter campaign coinciding with the debut of their ultimate night of the living dead titles .
seems jemas’s gamble didn’t pay off if rumors surrounding double take shutting operations are true . at last month’s new york comic con , double take was aggressive , giving thousands of its trade paperback away for free . the press , inverse included , were invited to visit double take’s booth and walked away with ten paperbacks just for showing up .
earlier today , bleeding cool ran the news that double take comics , the comic publishing arm of take 2 interactive is to close down . it follows earlier reports that that its publisher , bill jema s was trying to raise money to buy it .
“we are pleased to expand our partnership with lionsgate , who has the right team to bring to life on screen what double take brings to life in comics , ” said double take general manager bill jemas . “we look forward to seeing lionsgate’s creativity transform the ‘z - men’ story into an exciting feature film , and everyone on the double take team is incredibly enthused at this once - in - a - lifetime opportunity . ”
a representative from double take had no comment for bleeding cool when contacted about this story . more to come soon .
i’ve been waiting for one of the newer comics publishers to bow out for a while now , and double take isn’t the only one that has had hiccups…or had to look at the financing to see how long they would remain viable . the comics publishing business overall is good , but , again , it’s a highly competitive market creatively , with few sure things . i doubt that double take will be the only casualty over the next 12 months .
rumors of double take’s closing later this month revealed the publisher’s original plan involving a shared continuity between bioshock , xcom , and civilization , one that would somehow involve superheroes . ultimately , because of take - two’s games division and a lack of time , double take pursued a universe within george romero’s public domain zombie film night of the living dead . in 2015 , double take officially launched with ten titles , including z - men , which was optioned for a movie by lionsgate last year .
and as for jemas ? i doubt we’ve heard the last of him . he’s got comics in his blood .
double take’s books were poorly designed and badly drawn . i’m surprised they lasred this long . jemas should have published fewer books and hired professional creators .
the studio will partner with double take , a subsidiary of videogame developer and publisher take - two interactive software . written by jeff mccomsey , “z - men , ” centering on a pair of government agents dealing with a zombie apocalypse , is the flagship title in double take’s recently launched universe based on george romero’s iconic 1968 horror film “night of the living dead . ”
the boom in comics periodical publishers over the last few years has a first casualty : double take . the division of video game company take two interactive , which was headed by former marvel publisher bill jemas will shut down at the end of the month . the news was first reported at bleeding cool and independently confirmed by the beat .
lionsgate is adapting the zombie comic book “z - men” into a horror movie . the studio will partner with double take , a subsidiary of videogame developer and publisher take - two interactive software . written by jeff mccomsey , “z - men , ” centering on a pair of government agents dealing with a zombie apocalypse , is the flagship title in double take’s recently launched [ … ]
one of the strongest titles in double take ' s library was ' z - men , ' which was optioned by lionsgate for a movie last year .
for those unaware , double take is the comic book imprint of game publisher take - two interactive . while a comic book company owned by a game publishing company creating comics about a beloved film property seems like a recipe ripe for disaster , the project is spearheaded by bill jemas , of marvel ultimate universe fame . and put simply , jemas and his creators deliver .
if you all are curious about the comics , here’s the internal site the employees use . you have access to all issues .
last week , bleeding cool reported that double take planned to launch four new books in december , still set in the night of the living dead universe , but expanding into other genres . earlier in october , however , bleeding cool reported that jemas was seeking an investor to buy double take from take - two for $ 1 . 2 million , a story which jemas denied , saying , “not even close . ”
double take is only . the first of several recent small publishers that will be closing over the next 18 months during the speculation correction the comic sales market will experience .
a source told bleeding cool that bill jemas , who joined double take in 2013 , wanted to make a superhero universe using take - two’s games . strauss zelnick , chairman of take - two , gave jemas financing but was pushed back by the game’s division , who didn’t want an “outsider” to have access to its properties .
sixteen years ago , bill jemas played a lead role on the team that transformed marvel from an insolvent comic book publisher and toy manufacturer into a world - class entertainment company . in 2013 , take - two interactive software hired jemas to start double take .
“we’re delighted to expand our relationship with our friends at take - two by partnering with their comic book arm , double take , in bringing ‘z - men’ to the big screen , ” said lionsgate motion picture group co - chairs rob friedman and patrick wachsberger .
) . is this different approach due to a perception of a change in the collectible market or is it just a different situation for double take vs . where marvel was then ?
even if you have the original comics , it could be fun to put the two side - by - side and see the differences .
comics get launched on kickstarter all the time – from webcomic collections to new creations to everything in between , creators use the platform to see their creations come to life . but double take , a new publisher based out of new york , has one of the most ambitious , yet affordable , kickstarter campaigns i can recall .
first of all , the company – led by bill jemas , former marvel comics vice president – is using kickstarter to raise $ 15 , 000 to bring the world 10 new ongoing series . those comics are all set in the same universe as the george romero classic night of the living dead , and all ten are launching at once . the kickstarter is quite a unique one , both in its low overall cost , the value per dollar of its comics , and how simple the reward structures are : $ 5 gets you 10 digital comics , $ 10 gets you 10 print comics , $ 20 gets you a year’s digital subscription to all ten , $ 50 gets you all the trade paperbacks of the first arc of the ten new series . aside from a few bundles and art prints , that’s it – it is all about these comics .
in these september 2015 solicitations , double take has ten ongoing monthly series based on and around the movie night of the living dead , which they are publishing under the banner of ultimate night of the living dead . jemas was , if you recall , the co - founder of marvel ' s long - running ultimate comics line .
take - two interactive , the company behind grand theft auto , borderlands and 2k sports , is no longer just a video game publisher . take - two is branching out into comics with a new line of graphic novels set in the world of george romero ' s 1968 zombie film night of the living dead .
take - two has previously explored the comic book market with titles based on its borderlands and duke nukem properties , but double take looks like the company ' s attempt to carve out something new . based on the success of marvel studios ' film franchises and the walking dead ' s video game and television series , take - two must see an opportunity to build upon a fresh comic book foundation .
double take ' s ambitions go beyond zombie stories , jemas says . they ' ll be introducing superheroes to their universe , which will still share narrative space with the night of the living dead - inspired fiction .
the craziest part is some much of the work was in fact done by professional comics artists , but the end products all ended up having a shitty homogeneity . but then , everything wrong with them can be laid at the feet of bill jemas deciding he could completely reinvent the artistic process for creating comics without hiring comics professionals . every single member of their core staff , the writers who worked with jemas , the guys who storyboarded the books , the editors , the production designers , the guys who did the work behind the harebrained scheme of producing storyboards that would be later composited together into comic pages—literally every full time , salaried employee—had zero professional experience producing comics .
double take launched their universe with 10 first issues , with “dedication” being written by matt summo . when we asked yocum about the idea and methodology behind launching a universe right out of the gate with ten titles and holding onto that kind of release , especially in a competitive sense with the likes of marvel and dc releasing 20 or so comics a week , he had this to say :
i can’t remember where i wrote it , but when double take was announced , with their pricing structure , i said they wouldn’t make it a year . but they did . so ¯ \ _ ( ツ ) _ / ¯
so while you’re still in the halloween spirit , go watch night of the living dead for free on youtube . once you’re familiar with the world—or if you want to just dive right in—you can check out the first three issues for free on the double take website . the digital reader for their comics makes for a very cinematic experience . here’s some quick initial thoughts on what the series has to offer .
i brought that trade craft here but honestly i didn’t really know how to make comics i had written a bunch of plots . i complained about a bunch of comics i torn up a lot of pages . the difference between being the president of the company that writes a plot occasionally and being the gm who has to get books out the door is night and day difference . as much as the marvel experience was great and learning how to speak to and market to teens that was all fun . all the stuff we do here at double take i learn here on the job
bill and his wife are huge fans of the moth and have spent countless hours listening to slams on npr . in a case of incorporating what you love in your work , the first books that double take has published are 10 comics based in the night of the living dead universe . the books not only utilize moth storytellers as some of the writers , but actual moth stories are incorporated throughout the books .
but double take is once again doing something different . the 10 creative teams took 45 days to re - draw , re - write and in some cases re - order the different series in an almost director’s cut way . as a writer myself , i’ve never looked at a printed comic that i’ve written without seeing places i’d change it if i could . double take has given the creators that chance . the ability to look at the five issues and make them better .
not long ago double take took the unique step of launching 10 new comics simultaneously on the same day . all of the stories launched from the same place , the 1968 film night of the living dead . these titles included : rise , slab , medic , soul , honor , dedication , spring , z - men , remote and home . now , five issues in , it’s time to do a collected edition .
george a . romero ' s 1968 film , night of the living dead , has been credited as redefining zombies from that point forward ( if wikipedia is meant to be believed ) . decades after its release , it continues to influence new creators , and it just provided the basis for an entire new universe of comics . double take comics , a brand spanking new publisher , has launched ten titles all set in the world of the classic film . all of the first issues debuted at once and interested readers could pick up a nifty box containing the whole bunch . so , how does it stack up against romero ' s work ?
what double take has managed to do , is create a funny , clever , and oddly educational comic book universe . the stories are as easy to consume as fresh human brains . spruce and sometimes very aware of themselves , these stories remind readers all there is to love about comics . they also build upon that strong foundation with easter eggs sprinkled throughout with 1960s nostalgia like pages from a tv guide or parody ads sure to make you chuckle .
starting the double take comic universe with stories spinning in and out of night of the living dead , it’s safe to say that their developing universe deals with aliens , indestructible humans , and zombies . monsters come in all shapes , forms , and sizes .
double take had a very unorthodox publishing model : bundled monthly packs of 10 titles all spinning out of night of the living dead , a public domain zombie tale . the books were often plotted by writers whose main experience was live storytelling ( see storytellers from ‘the moth’ join jemas and double take for ‘living dead’ line . ) the shut down appears to have been sudden , as just last week the publisher announced four new titles , and at new york comic con they had a huge giveaway of 10 , 000 free graphic novels .
how xcom would connect to bioshock and civilization , or even how anyone becomes a superhero in these universes , remains unclear , perhaps because no one got around to thinking it through . but the success of take - two’s games could have given double take a fighting chance : the publisher officially launched in 2015 to unenthusiastic reviews , criticized for the art and lack of depth in the stories . “if bill had their support , he would have had the strongest marketing push of any comic company in the market , ” said bleeding cool ’s source . “double take was not the huge success bill had hoped for … and the money has to run out sometime . ”
scenes from rise , insurrection and soul are being posted to double take ' s facebook . many of those scenes are a work in progress , going from sketch to inked to colored work , and some feature recreated and expanded scenes from night of the living dead in comic form .
scourge of rich johnston , maker of puns , and seeker of the snyder cut , jude terror , sadly , is not the hero comics needs right now . . . but he ' s the one the industry deserves .
the latest games from take - two’s franchises , bioshock : the collection , civilization vi , and xcom 2 , are available now .
it’s utterly unsurprising that double take failed . what is surprising is that someone gave jemas the go ahead with a scheme that seems to be built almost entirely around indifference to and contempt for the medium , the industry , the professionals who work in it , and the readers who buy the product .
inspired by the popularity of zombies via the walking dead , bleeding cool ’s source said jemas “latched on” to night of the living dead with the hope that “double take [ sic ] could prove themselves , then strauss and bill could push back on the game division to give them the properties . ”
one line of enquiry pursued the origins of his comics universe . as published , it is a sequel to the public domain movie the night of the living dead , initially set in the sixties , that transforms into a superhero universe .
double take tried a lot of innovative marketing and format initiatives– jemas has always been a trailblazer and he had some intriguing ideas here . but the material wasn’t that strong and lacked recognizable creator names . ( you can read the first issues of all 10 titles here for free to see if you disagree . ) selling bundles and books outside the dm seemed like a good tactic but with other publishers putting out stellar work , competing creatively is a key to survival . although double take had deep pockets , that could only go so far . jemas as also rumored to be seeking an investor to buy the company , although that rumor was expressly denied by jemas .
heidi macdonald is the founder and editor in chief of the beat . in the past , she worked for disney , dc comics , fox and publishers weekly . she can be heard regularly on the more to come podcast . she likes coffee , cats and noble struggle .
one of the most unique aspects to these comics are some info graphics that you could find during 1966 , with the most informative info graphic is a small map in the back that shows where each book is taking place and from there i judged where to begin . reading all ten collectively , i do recommend that fans of the horror genre pick all of these up to get a comprehensive view of an exciting zombie horror adventure . find more comprehensive news , creative teams , and universe information at the official double take universe site . with each billed at 10 bucks a pop , they certainly wonâ€™t leave a dent in your wallet .
one of the complaints from earlier reviews about double take comicsâ€™ were the art and lack of secondary character depth . with the re - editing for the graphic novels the artist have gone and retouched the first issues to be at the same detail as the fourth and fifth issues . even the order of some of the secondary characters stories have been reshuffled to make the storyline run smoother . i highly recommend for those readers that only read the first issue to pick up at least one of these graphic novels and give them another read . you will not be disappointed with all the changes that have been made to make these comics better reads .
has quietly been working at bleeding cool for over three years . he has written comics for image , top cow , shadowline , avatar , idw , dynamite , moonstone , humanoids and zenescope . he is the author of the lucius fogg series of novels and a published photographer .
all ten titles will go five issues and then see trade paperbacks ( graphic novels ) release in the fall of 2016 . some of the titles will be ongoing and by the end of the year , double take will expand with five to seven new titles that take place in 2016 but in the same shared universe . “50 years from the events of these books , super heroes have emerged ; pennsylvania has become a wasteland , and we go all over , ” according to yocum . “there’s also going to be a book about early 2o’s females in london . ”
monsters come in all forms , shapes , and sizes . while the iconic universal monsters led the charge with vampires , mummies , wolf men , and gil men ( to name only a few ) , george a . romero gave the world the premiere depiction of zombies , then known as ghouls . his 1968 masterwork , night of the living dead , ignited fans and critics imaginations and is currently preserved by the national film registry . to this day , romero’s night of the living dead is still very much a part of the horror conversation and it was the very subject that joe and i got to discuss with gabe yocum and matt summo of double take comics while at c2e2 – chicago comic and entertainment expo .
having flipped through the on - line versions , i’m half curious how they formatted the print comics , though . did they also do the weird ( read : awful ) lettering at the bottom of the panel ? ( saves money on competent letterers when you can just typeset something at the bottom of the panel… )
my first question , when i heard about double take , was this : why night of the living dead ? what is it about this property that spoke to you enough to launch an entire line in the same universe ? bill jemas : it’s the best thing in the public domain . night of the living dead offers expansive leeway for world building and allows us to make it our own , and we do .
you were at marvel for one of the most important and yet tumultuous times in their history – what , from that experience , do you bring to double take ? which project – launching a new company , or reviving a flailing one – seemed more daunting ? i think i’m genetically programmed to fix broken things . “i love the smell of napalm in the morning” . starting anew is certainly more daunting for me .
it’s the second project that lionsgate has launched with take - two . the studio announced in august that it was developing a tentpole based on the videogame “borderlands” with avi and ari arad producing .
our pick ? matt summo’s “dedication . ” his title is described as “thanks to some hungry customers , the closing shift at george’s market has turned into a graveyard shift . ” “dedication” writer matt summo actually has experience in working at a grocery store . while working there , he published a book with an artist he found online . that journey led him to double take to seek out a position as an editor . “i put together a comic book , i could be an editor . i lettered it , i formatted it and so i sent it in [ to double take ] and they got back to me and said that they really liked my sample and ‘would you like to write for us ? ’ when it finally came around to night of the living dead , summo was asked to write one of the books based on his experience working at a grocery store .
double take is quick to point out that
no one affiliated with the 1968 night of the living dead film is in any way involved in the creation of the new stories .
but since romero ' s zombie movie is in the public domain — the result of a copyright mistake on behalf of the film ' s distributor and a disastrous flood that ruined an early print of the film — it ' s legally fair game .
this is like saying you see no difference between a star wars movie and a troma film : clear evidence of an utter lack of discernment in , or understanding of , the medium . they were , without doubt , the worst comics i have ever seen a nominally professional and well funded publisher put out in the past ten years .
the lineup of creators on these books are , for the most part , relatively unknown to mainstream comics fans . what can you tell us about each of the creative teams to pique our interest ? bj : we have three star writers doing two books each : jeff mccomsey ( best known for his zombie collections , fubar and mother russia ) is on “z - men” and “rise , ” brian finklestein and peter aguero – our moth radio hour grand slam champions – are professional writers and storytellers and are also doing two each . brian on “slab” and “medic , ” peter on “home” and “honor . ” double take is fortunate to have three wonderfully talented creators working in the office , michael coast , our story editor , along with julian rowe and kurt tiede – graphic artist .
what is immediately apparent in all of the double take titles is the sense of normalcy that flows through them . each picks up with a group of characters going about their everyday lives . they ' re doctors , grocery clerks , or radio djs in evan county , pennsylvania . suddenly , the dead begin walking and they don ' t know what to do . we know the horror that awaits them , but for them , it’s just getting started .
the companies that are crafty find a way to make money through a whole bunch of other ancillary sources of revenue : obvious and easy , graphic novels ; just as obvious but less easy , tv and movie deals ; and then finally licensing . but at double take , our charter is to build properties from scratch so we’ve had to shuffle the model a little bit to make it make more sense , to give us a reasonable chance at long - term profitability .
the zombie obsessives of the world know night of the living dead was one of the original mainstream zombie flicks and franchises before the zombie craze really took over thanks to current properties like the walking dead and world war z . but neither of those properties would likely exist without night of the living dead , which helped invent the zombie genre behind director george a . romero’s vision . and thanks to the folks at double take , his zombie universe is about to get expanded .
the hiccup with these double take titles is that they don ' t feel like full chapters of a story . while each of the series is an ongoing and there are more issues on the way , all of them end in abrupt ways , as if there were supposed to be more pages that were just left out . it doesn ' t fill me with an urge to check out more , as they all end right before or just as the action is starting .
x - com was originally a 1994 game from microprose , set in 1998 , a franchise featuring an elite international organization tasked with countering alien invasions of earth . recent games were published by take - two’s 2k games set in 2035 .
while bioshock , initially set in the sixties , was set among the survivors of a doomed underwater utopia and the monsters left behind . the games were developed and published by take - two’s 2k games , and developed with ken levine .
civilization was a microprose game , originally set in egypt in 4000 bc , and extending into the future as players develop their worlds , with sequels expanding that scope . take - two’s acquisition of the game would see future iterations extend off planet .
unlike a lot of new publishers , double take has a large , quite successful corporation as the parent company . with that in mind , why was a kickstarter the way to go for you guys ? is this as much about getting the word out and building an audience as it was about raising the funds ? bj : we are using kickstarter differently in that we want comic fans to get the product easily and affordably while allowing retailers to get in on the ground floor much more affordably than they can through distribution . readership is goal # 1 .
there’s a steve martin joke :
how you can be a millionaire and never pay taxes ? the first step is you get a million dollars .
our first step was to get sponsorship by a well - heeled company who understands that it can take some time to brew up a good entertainment business . really the first step and what’s kept us going through these two years and change without publishing anything is a lot of support from the guys at take two . some of that has just been giving me and my team the time to learn how to build properties from scratch . that’s been really hard to do . it’s been an intellectual challenge . as some of us know , as you get older , those intellectual challenges take a little bit longer , but i think we’re there on the creative side .
, which is just the stuff inside ) , you take the risk , you buy the book . you don’t have to buy this and that and the other thing , you just get the one book . those seem to have held value , or i’ve perceived them to have held value .
in recent weeks , i’ve had a little contre temps with bill jemas over an interview that was meant to take place but found him first pre - empt it and start to post elements from it before it was finished . two extensive sets of questions sent to him remain unanswered at this point .
your kickstarter is fascinating for a few reasons ; first of all , your incentives are extraordinarily affordable , and almost egalitarian in what is offered : no limited edition prints , no variants , just comics . to me , that shows how confident and proud you are of the books . was there a temptation to do something more extravagant for the rewards ? bj : we are very proud of the stories we are telling and the work will stand on its own . we may offer more extravagant rewards once we hit goal and go toward a stretch goal .
“if you love the movie and you like the characters , you’re going to be happy , ” gabe yocum remarked in regards to the expanding nature of the series . all ten titles take place around the fictional evans county , pennsylvania during the events of the film and expand the nature of night of the living dead in sometimes quite surprising and exciting ways .
i don’t like variants . i think it’s a lot of work with not a lot of value . if we do any variations , we might take one story , one premise and build two beginnings off the same premise ; we might build two alternate universes into the same world . so we might have alternate insides , but i don’t think alternate covers are all that healthy . everybody who bought
in a subsequent post , bc quoted an unnamed industry insider with a story of how the line was originally supposed to adapt take two games such as x - com , civilization and bioshock , a plan that was scuttled due to personality conflicts and business concerns . this led to a hasty plan of adapting night of the living dead in a series of interconnected books , according to the insider .
with respect to us specifically , we are going to take a guess at what the books ought to sell , and we’re going to print that amount , and that’s all we’re going to print . the difference is that we’re not expecting the books to become collectible on the first day . we’re building up some inventory . we’re talking to the top retailers in the industry , and a handful of we’ll call them , affectionately , whales ( a handful of serious collectors ) about taking a position with the books and buying a bunch of them , and selling them out slowly .
how closely will these stories get to the action from night of the living dead ? will we encounter familiar characters and settings , or are these simply tales set in that world ? bj : a little of both — want a peek ? it was important that we include the characters that are familiar to fans of the film , but we also go far beyond the limits of the film and the world you know . take a look at our website where the first 10 issues will be free . “z - men” # 1 is already up in full for free now .
what we’re doing is taking the 10 first issues and ganging them together in a super pack , shrink - wrapped with a spine , and loading all of those in a display shipper that fits countertops . so a retailer can buy the units , not blow any shelf space ( not that counter space is easy , but shelf space is gold ) , put our 10 - packs in a display case and sell them at a reasonable price , and when there’s one or two units left , they can take the super pack and place it spine out where the graphic novels go .
headquartered in new york city , take - two interactive software , inc . is a leading developer , publisher and marketer of interactive entertainment for consumers around the globe . the company develops and publishes products through its two wholly - owned labels rockstar games and 2k . our products are designed for console systems and personal computers , including smartphones and tablets , and are delivered through physical retail , digital download , online platforms and cloud streaming services . the companyâ€™s common stock is publicly traded on nasdaq under the symbol ttwo . for more corporate and product information please visit our website at http : / / www . take2games . com .
the beautiful concept behind double takes style is there is no listed reading order , so you can really jump into any one and still get something from a title . thereâ€™s no forward or anything that mentions these books are all part of this announced â€œultimate night of the living deadâ€ event despite all of them taking place within miles of each other , and , eventually , thematically touching on the zombie elements . although the 10 different comic books are under the same universe and tackle the same common threat , each story has their own feeling to it . z - men and honor tackle a more serious tone while dedication and home go in a more light hearted direction . although with only reading two or three of these graphic novels the tones may not blend well but when read all together the tones blend well with each other .
“ [ bill ] ’s kind of a visionary thinker and the fact of the matter is , the landscape we’re in today , where comics are so omni - present – they’re everywhere , independent companies often fail . the status quo is failure for independent companies . because it’s the same thing over and over again , why not figure out something different ? when we originally decided on this shared universe and that we were going to have ten titles , originally we thought – why not put out three the one month and two the next ? but why would we expect a different result than everyone else ? there’s no reason so why not try something different and if you’re launching an entire universe ; a universe is born with a big bang , not with a whimper , we thought ‘okay , why not do ten on one day ? that’s a lot , but we could package them together . the big thing in media , right now , is binging so why not binge an entire universe at one time ? for $ 20 bucks you get ten comic books ; they all have connections and overlap . it’s a real cohesive universe . it just made sense . ”
a prophecy says that in the comic book industry ' s darkest days , a hero will come to lead the people through a plague of overpriced floppies , incentive variant covers , # 1 issue reboots , and super - mega - crossover events .
) . in part 1 of our two - part interview , we talk about how the comic publishing world has changed since jemas’ marvel tenure ( 2000 - 2004 ) , his thoughts on overprints and variants , and on launching a new comic company in the current environment . in
, we talked about the launch issues of pricing , accessibility , marketing , digital , and the talent .
you’ve got a unique perspective on the market . you ran marvel’s publishing 10 - 15 years ago , have been adjacent to the comic book business since , and are now jumping back in with both feet . how do you think the business has changed in that time ?
i guess my surprise coming in was how well some of the independent companies and creators were doing in terms of sales volume . in talking to the handful of the guys who do creator - owned pubs , either self - published or self - published through image , i was expecting them to be doing better financially . i think my surprise with the industry is that it may not be providing a living for as many people as it could be or should be . without naming names ( i don’t want to embarrass people ) , looking at sales numbers from independent guys that score really high up in the monthly charts and understanding how much money is left for the creative team , when all is said and done not much is left . so that was a bit of a shock .
but i think the other things were not surprises . it’s very hard to make money as an independent publisher . the math just doesn’t work . good indies [ move ] 10 - 15 thousand units . if you want to pay people the way marvel and dc does , you’re spending $ 10 - $ 15 thousand for art and editorial , and then by the time you get done paying that and you’ve got $ . 50 to $ 1 a book you have to pay at low print volumes , you’re just losing money on every book if you’re successful , which is an interesting way to define success .
from a pure ink , paper , sales side , what we’re doing is a little bit higher risk but certainly higher reward . very specifically , we’re not trying to peg our initial print runs to initial orders . we’re going ahead and printing enough books so that we get really good prices from the printer , so we can have a low retail price point , get new readers in , and still sell to the retailers at a good enough price so they have a decent margin .
so we’re gang - printing the first 10 books , and ( this coming out of my mouth will shock you ) overprinting , printing what we think will sell in a long run with the first issues as opposed to what we sell in the first pop . once we had all 10 books in mind , we thought , we can trickle them out once a month , 5 - 10 thousand units , or we could gang them together in one big super pack .
we think this is a nice model . you never know until you know , but crystal ball out , this feels good . what i can tell you about it , with 10 individual # 1s trickled out one at a time , i was pretty sure that even if we had pretty good books , we’d lose money . with this system , i’m pretty sure that if we have pretty good books , we’ll make money , the retailers will make money , and the fans will get a decent price .
this kind of thing is exciting . my boss asked me yesterday how i’m feeling and i tell him i’m feeling nervous and i’m not sleeping , and for me , that’s good . that means we’re working hard on this and we’re doing everything we can to get the best stories out there and carry through the rest of the way through the printing process so the reader’s experience is good overall .
you mentioned that people may be surprised at the fact that you are overprinting . you famously ended overprints at marvel when you were there , and the collectible market responded ( see
that’s the other surprise when i re - entered the industry . the team that left with me and the team we left in place , there was a nice model for making money for everybody , the no - overprint , no - reprint model .
as i got back to the industry , i had a handful of retailers who called and said ,
bill , you know we owe you one .
they send me a picture of a beach house and say ,
we built that with the money we made when we got back into collectability .
so i would have expected that marvel would have kept up with no overprints , no reprints , and that dc would have copied , and the industry would have had , in addition to the pure readership , a collector’s aspect . and frankly , if you’re doing print in the era of dod [ download on demand ] , you’d better have something . so i was a little surprised that something that was really teed up and ready to go and worked really well disappeared . i don’t know why , and haven’t talked with the guys about why they did what they did , but it’s a shame .
i think we’ll get to collectability . it didn’t make sense to me to think that we’d get collectability from obscurity . i thought the books should get out there , people get to like them . if people like them as much as we hope they do , there’ll be a chase and the books that we’re printing the first shot will sell out quickly and have a secondary value to prime the pump for the collectibles business in the long term .
i’m not a collector ; i love the collectibles business . i think it’s a lot of fun . i’ve lived through the abuses . i lived through fleer . we had a wonderful business , and we got the rug pulled out from under us by the parent company with overprinting , but when collectability’s working , people have a good time doing it and retailers can make a pretty solid living brokering collectibles .
one difference now is that some of that collectible aspect of the market is in the variants portion of the business . are you doing any variants ? how do you feel about those ?
i don’t believe in them . as i look back at the products that i’ve produced , and the products that were produced when i was the most active in the business ( books like
# 1 . it’s a collectible book now it’s a lot of fun to have . we didn’t do the variant . the books that had the variants didn’t hold value .
i’m also harkening back to my experience with trading cards where the plain vanilla , in - the - pack michael jordan rookie card’s worth a lot of money and all the b . s . that we created of variant michael jordan stuff didn’t really matter .
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here ' s a preview of the sandman universe # 1 , published by dc vertigo .
pandasaurus games is placing a new edition of the spiel de jahres - nominated coop card game the game in target .
shinobi 7 will release my hero academia : the card game based on the popular anime .
lionsgate is adapting the zombie comic book “ z - men ” into a horror movie .
“we continue to diversify our portfolio with films adapted from novels , video games and board games and look forward to translating 2t’s graphic novel into a spine - chilling film for moviegoers and comic book fans alike . it is yet another example of the strong underlying intellectual property on which our film and television content is based . ”
the deal for “z - men” was orchestrated by lionsgate motion picture group president of business and legal affairs patricia laucella .
© copyright 2018 variety media , llc , a subsidiary of penske business media , llc . variety and the flying v logos are trademarks of variety media , llc . powered by urltoken vip
was 10 titles too many out of the gate ? sounds like it could’ve been . if they started with 3 and grown slowly they might have lasted longer , but who knows ?
it’s clear that they took risks in reaching a larger market it must have burned through a lot of money .
man . would have been nice if the trade dress even hinted at that . because nothing says “grisly horror” like mostly - white , clean block - letter logos and a design that looks like supermarket - brand mac and cheese .
xcom could make a great comic , but the inherent problem i see with it is that there’s no real reason its premise would * need * to be an xcom comic . ultimately , it’s about a bunch of military grunts trying to repel an alien invasion , making hard decisions , and dying in very large numbers . it’s a fantastic hook , but you don’t need the xcom brand to tell that story ; it might even be a liability .


gather-scatter is a type of memory addressing that often arises when addressing vectors in sparse linear algebra operations .

it is the vector-equivalent of register indirect addressing , with gather involving indexed reads and scatter indexed writes .

vector processors ( and some simd units in cpus ) have hardware support for gather-scatter operations , providing instructions such as load vector indexed for gather and store vector indexed for scatter .

gather - scatter ( vector addressing )

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have a definition for gather - scatter ( vector addressing ) ? write it here to share it with the entire community .
this article is about the vector addressing type . for the i / o method , see vectored i / o .
gather - scatter instructions may not be the optimal choice of instructions when you are trying to achieve superior performance on the intel® xeon phi™ coprocessor . however , if your code uses indirect addressing or performs non - unit strided memory accesses , gather - scatter instructions may be the best option . this document reveals the operation of gather - scatter instructions and introduces - opt - gather - scatter - unroll , a new compiler switch added to intel® c + + compiler 14 . 0 and intel® fortran compiler 14 . 0 that may provide improvements in certain codes that use gather - scatter instructions .
note that the gather - scatter - unroll compiler switch may not provide a performance improvement for all codes . its primary target are codes that use indirect addressing or perform non - unit strided memory accesses .
high performance computers are centered around the concept of vector processing . the first super - computer generation is single processor oriented . the last trends introduce parallel processing concepts in this field ( e . g . cray 2 ) . in this context , we propose to associate a specialized processor in vector addressing to vector processors . this one takes in charge the whole computation required to access either a contiguous vector , or a sparsed vector controlled by an index vector ( gather / scatter operations ) . an elementary vector access processor is in charge of vector operand fetching with a limited length . a modular cluster will increase length of fetched vectors .
• fetching non - contiguous data elements from memory using vector - index memory addressing . these “gather” instructions introduce a new memory - addressing form , consisting of a base register and multiple indices specified by a vector register ( either xmm or ymm ) . data elements sizes of 32 and 64 - bits are supported , and data types for floating - point and integer elements are also supported .
on page 488 , pdep and pext are parallel bits deposit and parallel bits extract . they are essentially scatter / gather instructions for bits .
fig . 13 illustrates a flow diagram of a process for packed loading and storing of data in a gather / scatter distribution in accordance with an embodiment .
as shown in the above two examples , gather - scatter instructions are generally followed by a conditional branching instruction which is used to test whether the gather - scatter is complete and re - trigger the instruction if it is not . however , this conditional branching is an added overhead to the execution of the program .
before we dive into the details of how and when to use the compiler switch and why it even works , let us review the operation of gather - scatter instructions .
the operation of the scatter instructions is very similar to that of the corresponding gather instructions . the only difference being that the instruction stores data elements into the memory instead of loading them into an output vector register . similar to the gather instructions , only those elements will be stored into memory for which the corresponding mask bits are set .
in certain cases , a programmer may know that in his application , most gather - scatter sequences take n number of invocations for completion . in such cases , the programmer may use the - gather - scatter - unroll = n compiler switch to hint the compiler to unroll the re - trigger loop n times , thereby alleviating the overhead caused by the branching instructions .
the write mask register , also known as the source mask , plays an important role in the operation of the gather . the mask register has one bit corresponding to each element that can be held by the output vector register . the elements of the mask register for which the corresponding bit is set are known as the active elements . in a gather instruction , data is loaded from memory to the vector register for only the active elements of the vector . on a given invocation of a gather instruction , the following operations are performed :
in the following code , we know ( based on prior information ) that all the data elements are widely scattered in memory and , in general , will need 16 invocations of the gather - scatter instructions . in this case , we can add a “ - gather - scatter - unroll = 8 ” switch to the compiler call . we use an unroll factor of 8 as this is the greatest unroll factor allowed by the compiler . the compiler will unroll the loop , alleviating the overhead incurred due to the branching instructions . the unrolled code generated by the compiler with the “ - gather - scatter - unroll = 8 ” switch is shown below :
…ulations when loading from an address that ' s computed by adding two registers together , x86 can scale one of them by 2 , 4 , or 8 , for free as part of the addressing calculation . this change makes the code generated for gather and scatter use this . for the cases where gather / scatter is based on a base pointer and an integer offset vector , the gsimprovementspass looks to see if the integer offsets are being computed as 2 / 4 / 8 times some other value . if so , it extracts the 2x / 4x / 8x part and leaves the rest there as the the offsets . the { gather , scatter } _ base _ offsets _ * functions take an i32 scale factor , which is passed to them , and then they carefully generate ir so that it hits llvm ' s pattern matching for these scales . this is particular win on avx , since it saves us two 4 - wide integer multiplies . noise runs 14 % faster with this . issue # 132 .
as with the gather instruction , memory is accessed at a granularity of 64 bytes , and hence all the elements present in a given 64 bytes of memory are “scattered” in a single invocation of the scatter instruction . again , a scatter instruction will generally be re - executed ( i . e . re - triggered ) until all the required data has been stored to memory .
i suspect that for these ones , it ' s going to be good - this looks too fundamental to the sorts of changes first described in larrabee programming guides . the hope is that many of these functions ( conditional loads , scatter / gather , etc ) will allow a much larger proportion of loops to be parallelized than is currently the case . obviously not everything is amenable to parallelization due to serial dependencies , but having scatter / gather to do multiple load / store stuff makes it a lot easier .
6 . the method of claim 5 , wherein a plurality of addresses of the second plurality of non - contiguous locations in the memory of the data elements to scatter are distributed in separate register file elements of the vector computation register file .
due to the special behavior of the mask register , it can be used to allow conditional looping of the gather instruction until all the elements from a given write mask have been successfully loaded . a typical usage of a gather instruction along with the re - trigger loop is shown below :
in this example , since the compiler has no prior information as to the order that data elements of arr2 will be accessed , the compiler will generate gather - scatter instructions to load the different data elements into a vector register and to store those data elements back to memory once the data elements have been incremented . without the switch , the code generate by the compiler will look similar to the following :
each processing slice within the processing element 400 includes a memory access pipeline ( load / store pipeline ) and an arithmetic pipeline . managing flow through the lsu 420 as a load / store pipeline can enable computation of one address per vector data element or sub - element , and facilitates the gathering and scattering of data from and to memory . gather / scatter capabilities provide access to data stored in non - contiguous memory locations by realizing multiple vector data element accesses simultaneously , despite their disjoint distribution in non - contiguous memory . the processing element 400 provides the ability to perform associated fixed - point effective address ( i . e . , virtual address ) computations to support gather - scatter functionality . the arithmetic pipeline through the alu 418 can include a robust assortment of floating - point and fixed - point operations to support a variety of workloads .
• vector shift instructions with per - element shift count . data elements sizes of 32 and 64 - bits are supported .
the sparse scatter , denoted y | _ x \ leftarrow x is the reverse operation . it copies the nonzero values of sparse x into the corresponding locations in the dense vector y , i . e . y ( idx ( i ) ) = x ( i ) .
packing a second number of the data elements into less than the width of the register file elements of the vector computation register file .
consider the vgatherdps instruction which gathers a float32 vector using signed dword indices . the inputs and outputs of the vgatherdps instruction are shown below :
if multiple data elements required by the gather sequence are present in the 64 bytes then all the corresponding elements of the output register are updated with the values from the accessed memory .
miura k . ( 2011 ) fujitsu vector computers . in : padua d . ( eds ) encyclopedia of parallel computing . springer , boston , ma
> primitives for permutations of bits , see section 1 . 29 . 2 on page 81 . a bit - gather and a bit - scatter instruction for sub - words of all sizes a power of 2 would allow for arbitrary permutations ( see [ fxt : bits / bitgather . h ] and [ fxt : bits / bitseparate . h ] for versions working on complete words ) .
in embodiments , processing elements are implemented as vector processors . in a vector processor , memory accesses and arithmetic instructions can act upon full vectors or generally continuous portions of vectors , where vectors enable parallel processing on multiple data elements . for some operations , memory accesses or calculations for randomly distributed elements of the vectors may be immaterial . to reduce traffic through a memory hierarchy , and the associated energy consumed , by unnecessary memory accesses , the vector processors include vector mask register files for use in predication of instructions and as targets of comparison instructions . predication of instructions allows for selective execution of certain elements of the vectors based on a mask .
note that during a single invocation of the gather instruction , only 64 bytes of memory are accessed and the output register is updated with only those elements that are present in these 64 bytes . since gather instructions are generally used to fetch data elements that are dispersed in memory , it is unlikely that the all required data elements will be present in the accessed 64 bytes of memory . hence , it is generally required for the programmer to execute gather statements in a loop until all the required data elements have been loaded into the output register . as each data element is gathered , the corresponding bit in the write mask register is reset . the completion of the gather sequence is signaled by the write mask register being zero , i . e . when all the bits of the mask register have been cleared ( zero ) .
david a patterson , lecture 6 : vector processing , 1998 , 60 pages , retrieved from the internet on may 7 , 2015 , retrieved from url < urltoken > .
pdep uses a mask in the second source operand ( the third operand ) to transfer / scatter contiguous low order bits in the first source operand ( the second operand ) into the destination ( the first operand ) .
these are extremely interesting instructions . it ' s worth noting , however , that things like gather / scatter live and die by the quality of their implementation . i would hope that these are considered worth delivering high - quality implementations , but let ' s just say that intel has occasionally been known to deliver complex instructions that are all but useless due to poor latency and reciprocal throughput . sse4 . 2 , i ' m looking at you .
although the example process 1300 of fig . 13 has been described in reference to gathering data elements followed by scattering data elements , it will be understood that data elements can be scattered and then gathered . furthermore , multiple gather and scatter load / store commands can be initiated in parallel across multiple processing slices in the processing element 400 . scattering and gathering can reference a common data set to read / modify / store distributed data values or can operate on different data sets , where a first data set is gathered - read , processed , and a resulting second data set is scattered - written to different non - contiguous memory locations . additionally , scattering and gathering may be performed independently of each other , where non - contiguous data is gathered , processed and stored contiguously ( no - scatter ) or contiguous data can be read ( no gather ) , processed , and scattered - written non - contiguously .
matsuura t , miura k , makino m ( 1985 ) supervector performance without toil : fortran implemented vector algorithms on the vp - 100 / 200 . comput phys commun 37 : 101–107
at the processing slice level , computation can occur on floating - point and fixed - point data types at , for example , a 64 - bit granularity in a temporal simd manner on 64 - bit vector elements , and in a temporal and spatial simd manner on narrower vector sub - elements , which can be 32 - bits , 16 - bits , or 8 - bits wide .
packing and loading the set of data elements into a set of register file elements of a third register file entry of the vector computation register file by the processing element based on the second instruction .
miura k ( 1986 ) fujitsu s supercomputer : facom vector processor system . in : fernbach s ( ed ) supercomputers : class vi systems , hardware and software . north - holland , amsterdam , pp 137–152
scattering and storing , by the processing element , the plurality of data elements to a plurality of non - contiguous locations in the memory based on the instruction and a plurality of addresses in parallel with performing the at least one sub - instruction accessing the register file entries of the scalar computation register file , wherein each of the plurality of data elements is individually addressable and is narrower than a width of the plurality of register file elements of the vector computation register file , wherein an address of one of the non - contiguous locations in the memory of each of the data elements to scatter is distributed in each of at least two separate register file elements of a first register file entry of the register file entries of the vector computation register file .
7 . the method of claim 6 , wherein the addresses of the second plurality of non - contiguous locations in the memory of the data elements to scatter are different addresses than the addresses of the first plurality of non - contiguous locations in the memory from which the data elements are gathered .
for the case where the element size is 2 , 4 , or 8 , we ' d like take advantage of the free scale by 2 / 4 / 8 in the x86 address calculation ops . it should be pretty straightforward to update one of the gather / scatter optimizations to do this ; the trick is to emit a pattern that llvm identifies . early experiments suggest that for the i32 offset case , the key is to sext to i64 first , then do a scalar multiply by 2 / 4 / 8 , then gep with base address and the offset before the load / store .
17 . the method of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of addresses of the non - contiguous locations in the memory of the data elements to scatter are different addresses than the plurality of addresses of the set of non - contiguous locations in the memory from which the set of data elements are gathered .
fig . 13 depicts an example process 1300 for packed loading and storing of data in a gather / scatter distribution in an active memory device , such as the active memory devices of figs . 1 - 3 . the blocks depicted in fig . 13 may be performed by one of the processing elements of figs . 1 - 4 in an active memory device . for example , the blocks may be performed by a processing element in an active memory device , where the processing element accesses portions of memory ( e . g . , memory vaults sharing a stack with the processing element ) and performs operations on data accessed from the memory . for purposes of explanation , the processing element is described in reference to processing element 400 of fig . 4 . although fig . 13 is described relative to an active memory device , it will be understood that the process of fig . 13 can be implemented in systems that include a processing element 400 in communication with memory in other configurations , such as memory located remotely from the processing element 400 . accordingly , the processing element 400 need not be located within an active memory device and can perform gather / scatter operations on remotely located memory including , for example , memory located in a separate active memory device .
fig . 7 is similar to the example of fig . 6 , where data in memory 702 has the same width as the register file elements 704 a - 704 f of register file entry 705 in vector register file 703 , but with the data is scattered in memory 702 rather than contiguous . since processing element 400 supports the gathering and scattering of data from / to memory , the processing element 400 can load data element values a - f in fig . 7 into the register file elements 704 a - 704 f of register file entry 705 , with the result being that the data ends up in the vector register file 703 exactly the same as it did in vector register file 603 in fig . 6 when the data was contiguous in memory 602 .
fig . 9 is similar to the example of fig . 8 , where data in memory 902 has a narrower width than the register file elements 904 a - 904 f of register file entry 905 in vector register file 903 , but with the data scattered in memory 902 rather than contiguous . since processing element 400 supports the gathering and scattering of data to / from memory including narrower width data , the processing element 400 can load data element values a - f in fig . 9 into the register file elements 904 a - 904 f of register file entry 905 , with the result being that the data ends up in the vector register file 903 exactly the same as it did in vector register file 803 in fig . 8 when the data was contiguous in memory 802 .
• cross - lane functionalities are provided with several new instructions for broadcast and permute operations . some of the 256 - bit vector integer instruc - tions promoted from legacy sse instruction sets also exhibit cross - lane behavior , e . g . vpmovz / vpmovs family .
miura k , uchida k ( 1984 ) facom vector processor vp - 100 / vp - 200 . in : kowalik js ( ed ) high - speed computation , nato asi series f : computer and systems sciences , vol 7 . springer , berlin , pp 127–138
13 . the method of claim 12 , wherein the vector computation register file is accessible by the load - store unit and the arithmetic - logic unit , wherein each of the plurality of addresses comprises a greater width than a width of each of the plurality of data elements .
miura k , nagakura h , tamura h ( 1991 ) vp2000 series dual scalar and quadruple scalar models supercomputer systems – a new concept in vector processing . in : proceedings of compcon spring 91 , san francisco , ca . ieee computer society press , washington , dc , pp 294–302
16 . the method of claim 15 , wherein packing and loading the set of data elements into the set of register file elements by the processing element based on the second instruction further comprises distributing the set of packed data elements into fewer register file elements than are consumed by a plurality of addresses of the set of the non - contiguous locations in the memory to gather .
fujitsu vector machines are the series of supercomputers developed by fujitsu from 1976 to 1999 . they are based on the pipeline architecture , and vpp systems have also incorporated a high degree of parallelism with distributed memory in the system architecture , utilizing the full crossbar network for non - blocking system interconnect .
overall it ' s like a wet dream for bit - bashers . pdep ? pext ? byte field extract ? scatter ? 256 - bit integer simd ? i was almost too excited to speak when i first skimmed this ( moderated somewhat by the 2013 release date and lingering concerns that some of the better insns will have latency 8 and reciprocal throughput 5 or something disappointing like that ) .
a vector processor may support multiple memory accesses in parallel . when data types being accessed have different widths , particularly smaller than a nominal width , gathering the data in parallel and storing the data in parallel can result in inefficient use of memory , such as leaving potentially unusable gaps between data elements stored and read from memory .
fig . 11 shows an embodiment , whereby narrower data is scattered throughout memory 1102 , yet is still loaded and packed into fewer register file elements 1104 a - 1104 c of register file entry 1105 in vector register file 1103 than in register file elements 904 a - 904 f of register file entry 905 of fig . 9 .
fig . 12 illustrates an example of packed loading and storing of data in a gather / scatter distribution in accordance with an embodiment . in fig . 12 , narrower data is scattered throughout memory 1202 , yet is still loaded and packed into fewer register file elements 1204 a - 1204 c of register file entry 1205 in vector register file 1203 than in register file elements 904 a - 904 f of register file entry 905 of fig . 9 . fig . 12 also depicts that addresses of the narrow data elements can be distributed over register file elements 1206 a - 1206 u of register file entry 1207 , extending to a greater number of register file elements than the number used to hold the data associated with the addresses in register file elements . for example , data element values a - u are packed into register file elements 1204 a - 1204 c of register file entry 1205 , but the addresses associated with the data element values a - u are distributed between register file elements 1206 a - 1206 u of register file entry 1207 . additionally , in the example of fig . 12 , the width of address elements is the same as the register file elements 1206 a - 1206 u ( 8 bytes wide ) in vector register file 1203 , while the data element values are 1 byte wide . additionally , the processing element 400 can support packing and accessing less than the full width of the register file elements , such as register file element 1204 c of register file entry 1205 that only packs 5 of 8 bytes .
3 . the method of claim 2 , wherein packing and loading the data elements into the one or more of the register file elements further comprises distributing the packed data elements into fewer register file elements than are consumed by the addresses , and the second register file entry is subsequent to the first register file entry in the vector computation register file .
fig . 10 is an example of narrower data types arranged contiguously in memory 1002 being packed into fewer register file elements 1004 a - 1004 c of register file entry 1005 in vector register file 1003 than in register file elements 904 a - 904 f of register file entry 905 of fig . 9 . the data can be loaded as if the data type was the same as in fig . 6 , since it is arranged contiguously .
in exemplary embodiments , the processing element 400 supports gathering and scattering of narrow data types to / from memory into a register file , such as the vcr 414 , in a packed fashion in addition to other size and distribution patterns . fig . 6 shows data which is arranged in memory 602 in a contiguous manner , and which has the same width as the register file elements 604 a - 604 f . the data is loaded into the vector elements of an entry of a vector register file 603 , such as vcr 414 , having a multiplicity of elements associated with each addressable entry . in the example of fig . 6 , each of the register file elements 604 a - 604 f of register file entry 605 includes 8 bytes ( 64 bits ) , and data element values a - f each include 8 byes ( 64 - bits ) arranged contiguously across 32 - bytes of memory 602 .
avx2 promotes the vast majority of 128 - bit integer simd instruction sets to operate with 256 - bit wide ymm registers . avx2 instructions are encoded using the vex prefix and require the same operating system support as avx . generally , most of the promoted 256 - bit vector integer instructions follow the 128 - bit lane operation , similar to the promoted 256 - bit floating - point simd instructions in avx . newer functionalities in avx2 generally fall into the following categories :
at block 1312 , the processing element 400 scatters and stores data elements to non - contiguous locations in memory based on the second instruction . similar to gathering , scattering can be managed using the vcr 414 , lsu 420 , and erat 422 , as well as the lsq 404 . the lsq 404 can control sequencing of gathering and scattering based on addresses generated by the lsu 420 and translated by the erat 420 . the addresses of the non - contiguous locations in the memory of the data elements to scatter can be different addresses than the non - contiguous locations in the memory from which the data elements are gathered .
fig . 8 shows an arrangement of a narrower data type in a contiguous manner in memory 802 . the data element values a - f are loaded into register file elements 804 a - 804 f of a register file entry 805 , with the extra space of the wider registers left vacant . for example , the data element values a - f are each 1 byte wide in fig . 8 while the register file elements 804 a - 804 f of a register file entry 805 are each 8 bytes wide in vector register file 803 .
packing and loading the data elements into one or more of the register file elements of a second register file entry of the register file entries of the vector computation register file by the processing element based on the instruction , such that at least two of the data elements gathered from the first plurality of non - contiguous locations in the memory are packed and loaded into a single register file element of the second register file entry as a plurality of packed data elements in parallel with performing the at least one sub - instruction accessing the register file entries of the scalar computation register file .
at block 1304 , the processing element 400 gathers a plurality of individually addressable data elements from non - contiguous locations in the memory which are narrower than a nominal width of register file elements in the processing element 400 based on the instruction . for example , the vcr 414 of the processing element 400 can include a plurality of register file entries , where each of the register file entries includes a plurality of register file elements . in the example of fig . 12 , each register file element per register file entry has a width of 8 bytes ( 64 bits ) and supports data elements as narrow as 1 byte ( 8 bits ) . addresses of the non - contiguous locations in the memory of the data elements to gather may be distributed in separate register file elements of a register file entry in the vcr 414 . the lsu 420 can use the addresses from the vcr 414 to gather data elements from non - contiguous locations in memory , where each address in the vcr 414 can map to an independent data element to be gathered as part of a single instruction . as previously described , the lsu 420 can operate in parallel with other units , such as alu 418 . the addresses in the vcr 414 can be translated into a physical address by the erat 422 . as can be seen in the example of fig . 12 , the addresses in the vcr 414 can have a greater width than a width of the data elements ( e . g . , 8 bytes vs . 1 byte ) .
in an embodiment , the active memory devices include stateless processing elements within a memory cube . processing elements appear to a program in the main processor as long latency functional units . the processing elements themselves are programmable engines , comprising an instruction buffer , an instruction unit , including branching capability and instruction decode , a mixture of vector , scalar , and mask register files , a plurality of load / store units for the movement of data between memory and the register files , and a plurality of execution units for the arithmetic and logical processing of various data types . also included are address translation capabilities for converting program virtual addresses to real addresses , a unified load / store queue to sequence data movement between the memory and the processing elements , and a processor communications unit , for communication with the main processor .
programs configured to execute on the processing element 400 can contain data types of different widths , and the data may be located in a contiguous manner in memory , or it may be scattered about in a random fashion . the processing element 400 , which supports multiple - sized data types within its register files such as in vcr 414 and scr 416 , can load its register files with any data type that is arranged in a contiguous manner . the processing element 400 can also support the gathering and scattering of each data type into one entry or vector element of the register files . rather than limiting register file entries or elements to a fixed bit width or leaving vacant space within an entry or element when loading a data type of a size less than the nominal width of the register file , the processing element 400 can pack smaller data types , whether or not they are arranged in a contiguous manner in memory .
fig . 4 depicts an example of a processing element 400 coupled to an interconnect network 402 as an embodiment of one of the processing elements of figs . 1 - 3 . the processing element 400 is a programmable vector processing element , situated in an active memory device , such as one of the active memory devices of figs . 1 - 3 . in the example of fig . 4 , the processing element 400 includes a load - store queue ( lsq ) 404 coupled to the interconnect network 402 and to an instruction buffer 406 . the instruction buffer 406 is also coupled to a lane control unit ( lcu ) 408 and a decoder 410 . a processor communication unit ( pcu ) 412 provides a communication interface between the processing element 400 and the main processor or other processing elements through the interconnect network 402 . the lsq 404 is also coupled to a vector computation register file ( vcr ) 414 and a scalar computation register file ( scr ) 416 . the vcr 414 and scr 416 are coupled through multiple multiplexers to an arithmetic logic unit ( alu ) 418 and a memory - access unit 420 , also referred to as a load - store unit ( lsu ) 420 . the alu 418 is coupled to itself and to the lsu 420 through multiplexers , and is also coupled to the vcr 414 and the scr 416 . the lsu 420 may also be coupled to itself , to the lsq 404 , to an effective - to - real address translation unit ( erat ) 422 , to the vcr 414 and to the scr 416 ( all connections not depicted ) . the erat 422 is also coupled to the lsq 404 . as will be appreciated , numerous other connections and elements can be included in the processing element 400 . for example , connections between the decoder 410 and other elements are not depicted for clarity . additionally , depicted connections in fig . 4 can be modified or omitted , such as the depicted connection between decoder 410 and pcu 412 .
at block 1310 , the processing element 400 unpacks data elements from the register file entry based on the second instruction . the unpacking of the data elements from the register file entry by the processing element 400 based on the second instruction can include reading the packed data elements as narrower data types ( e . g . , 1 byte ) and reading the addresses as wider data types ( e . g . , 8 bytes ) . the processing element 400 can unpack at least a first number of data elements filling the nominal width of register file elements , such as 8 1 - byte data elements from register file element 1204 a of register file entry 1205 , and unpack a second number of data elements occupying less than the nominal width of register file elements , such as 5 1 - byte data elements from register file element 1204 c of register file entry 1205 , where the register file elements in the vector register file 1203 are 8 bytes wide in the example of fig . 12 .
at block 1306 , the processing element 400 packs and loads the data elements into a register file entry based on the instruction , such that at least two of the data elements gathered from non - contiguous locations in the memory are packed and loaded into a single register file element . packing and loading the data elements into the register file elements by the processing element 400 based on the instruction can include distributing the packed data elements into fewer register file elements than are consumed by the addresses . for example , in fig . 12 , each address is one 8 - byte entry distributed over register file elements 1206 a - 1206 u of register file entry 1207 , for a total of 21 full register file elements in register file entry 1207 . the data elements associated with the addresses are packed 8 : 1 into three register file elements 1204 a - 1204 c of register file entry 1205 , for a total of two full and one partial register file elements . therefore , only 21 bytes are occupied for data elements in the example of fig . 12 , while 168 bytes are occupied for addresses . moreover , the data elements in fig . 12 are loaded in a contiguous order in the vector register file 1203 even though they are scattered at non - contiguous locations in the memory 1202 . the processing element 400 can pack at least a first number of data elements to fill the nominal width of register file elements ( e . g . , 8 1 - byte data elements to fill an 8 - byte register file element width for register file element 1204 a ) , and can also pack a second number of data elements into less than the nominal width of register file elements ( e . g . , 5 - byte data elements packed into an 8 - byte register file element width for register file element 1204 c ) .
this is a computer translation of the original content . it is provided for general information only and should not be relied upon as complete or accurate .
at least a single active element starting from the least significant active bit in the source mask is selected .
64 bytes of memory corresponding to the selected element is accessed . note that the accessed element will always access 64 bytes of memory .
the mask bits in the write mask register corresponding to the updated elements in the output register are reset to 0 .
# zmm0 – index register # r8 - base address # k1 - mask register # zmm6 – output register # 4 - scale . . l10 : vgatherdps ( % r8 , % zmm0 , 4 ) , % zmm6 { % k1 } jkzd . . l9 , % k1 vgatherdps ( % r8 , % zmm0 , 4 ) , % zmm6 { % k1 } jknzd . . l10 , % k1 . . l9 :
# zmm0 – index register # r12 - base address # k3 - mask register # zmm6 – input register # 4 - scale . . l14 : vscatterdps % zmm7 , ( % r12 , % zmm6 , 4 ) { % k3 } jkzd . . l13 , % k3 vscatterdps % zmm7 , ( % r12 , % zmm6 , 4 ) { % k3 } jknzd . . l14 , % k3 . . l13 :
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• avx2 complements the avx instructions that are typed for floating - point operation with a full compliment of equivalent set for operating with 32 / 64 - bit integer data elements .
apl and j have
transpose
instructions that let you rearrange the dimensions of a multidimensional array . i figured out awhile back how that could be done without having to move all the individual elements in memory ; basically , keep track of the ' step size ' between elements on each axis , and you can shuffle them around as much as you like . of course , once you ' ve done that , you ' re jumping back and forth all over the array to pull in each element when / where you want it .
wow , i can ' t wait to play around with pdep and pext instructions .
i want to use them for speeding up some critical code for compression / decompresison , the current code is not straightforward .
the document is pretty easy to navigate if you know which instructions you want to look up .
pext uses a mask in the second source operand ( the third operand ) to transfer either contiguous or non - contiguous bits in the first source operand ( the second operand ) to contiguous low order bit positions in the destination ( the first operand ) .
these days it ' s the arm instruction set i care about . strange how fast x86 dropped off my radar .
downmodders are really out of control here lately . obviously i ' m not saying that
cares about x86 anymore . it just very quickly went from the years of being only game in town to a sideshow
what server software i do write is in very hll like ruby but i actually find myself looking at arm disassembly sometimes now for apps .
maybe the feeling is that your personal statement of discontent with x86 is not really relevant to the story that new instructions have been added to x86 . this is probably why you were downvoted . if you want to leave a comment with a similar essence , perhaps you should try commenting on one or two new instructions that are [ interesting | upsetting | repetitive ] to you ahead of your statement that you don ' t care about arm anymore .
since i started writing software professionally over ten years ago x86 was the only instruction set that mattered outside of a few niche domains . now it ' s all but irrelevant in the fastest growing market . for those of us that have lived in the shadow of wintel our entire professional lives the last few years have seen some dizzying changes .
so the big picture for me is that developments in x86 are now minor news .
enauczanie to usługa elektroniczna oparta na popularnym systemie moodle , umożliwiająca szeroko rozumiane kształcenie zdalne , odbywanie zaliczeń testów weryfikujących wiedzę oraz dostęp do wirtualnych laboratoriów . nowoczesna platforma dydaktyczna oferuje obecnie blisko 1200 kursów z różnych dziedzin wiedzy , obsługując ponad 20 tysięcy użytkowników rocznie .
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this system was organized as an asymmetric multiprocessor system which consists of the mainframe computer facom 230–75 and the array processor unit . the clock was 90 ns , and the peak performance of apu is 22 mflop / s for addition / subtraction and 11 mflop / s for . . .
uchida k , seta y , tanakura y ( 1978 ) the facom 230 - 75 array processor system . in : proc 3rd usa - japan computer conference , san francisco , ca . afips press , montvale , nj , pp 369–373
miura k ( 1990 ) vectorization and parallelization of transport monte carlo simulation codes . in : nato asi series vol f62 , pp 307–324
uchida n et al ( 1990 ) fujitsu vp2000 series . in : proceedings of compcon spring 90 , san francisco , ca . ieee computer society press , washington , dc , pp 4–11
hwang k ( 1993 ) section 8 . 2 . 3 fujitsu vp2000 and vpp500 . in : advanced computer architecture : parallelism , scalability , programmability . mcgraw - hill , inc . , new york , pp 425–429
miyoshi h et al ( 1994 ) development and achievement of nal numerical wind tunnel ( nwt ) for cfd computations . in : proceedings of 1994 acm / ieee conference on supercomputing ( sc 94 ) , washington , dc . ieee computer society press ( 1994 ) , washington , dc , pp 685–692
utsumi t , ikeda m , takamura m ( 1994 ) architecture of the vpp500 parallel supercomputer . in : proceedings of supercomputing 94 , washington , dc . ieee computer society press , washington , dc , pp 478–486
nakashima y , kitamura t , tamura h , takiuchi m , miura k ( 1994 ) the scalar processor of the vpp500 parallel supercomputer . in : proceedings of the 9th acm international conference on supercomputing ( ics 94 ) , manchester , england . acm , new york , pp 348–356
nakanishi m , ina h , miura k ( 1994 ) a high perfor - mance linear equation solver on the vpp500 parallel supercomputer . in : proceedings of 1994 acm / ieee conference on supercomputing ( sc 94 ) , washington , dc . ieee computer society press , washington dc , pp 803–810
iwashita h et al ( 1994 ) vpp fortran and parallel programming on the vpp500 supercomputer . in : proceedings of 1994 international symposium on parallel architectures , algorithms and networks ( ispan 94 ) , kanazawa , japan , 14–16 dec 1994 , pp 165–172
nodomi a , ikeda m , takamura m , miura k ( 1995 ) hardware performance of the vpp500 parallel supercomputer . in : dongarra j , grandinetti l , joubert g , kowalik j ( eds ) high performance computing : technology , method and applications , vol 10 . advances in parallel computing . elsevier , amsterdam , pp 103–120
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{ [ document . course . dept _ acro ] } { [ document . course . course _ num ] }
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arrangements for program control , e . g . control units using stored programs , i . e . using an internal store of processing equipment to receive or retain programs
embodiments relate to packed loading and storing of data . an aspect includes a method for packed loading and storing of data distributed in a system that includes memory and a processing element . the method includes fetching and decoding an instruction for execution by the processing element . the processing element gathers a plurality of individually addressable data elements from non - contiguous locations in the memory which are narrower than a nominal width of register file elements in the processing element based on the instruction . the data elements are packed and loaded into register file elements of a register file entry by the processing element based on the instruction , such that at least two of the data elements gathered from the non - contiguous locations in the memory are packed and loaded into a single register file element of the register file entry .