13.4. 13.4 The Purpose of the MMX Instruction Set
The Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) model the MMX architecture supports may not look all that impressive when viewed with a SISD (Single Instruction Single Data) bias. Once you've mastered the basic integer instructions on the 80×86, it's difficult to see the application of the MMX's SIMD instruction set. However, the MMX instructions directly address the needs of modern media, communications, and graphics applications, which often use sophisticated algorithms that perform the same operations on a large number of small data types (bytes, words, and double words).
For example, most programs use a stream of bytes or words to represent audio and video data. The MMX instructions can operate ...
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