By loading from indexed offsets into a byte array and applying a mask, a
program can test bits from the bit set with a relatively short instruction
sequence. For example, suppose we have 15 bit sets to lay out:
A (16 bits), B (15 bits), C (14 bits), D (13 bits), E (12 bits),
F (11 bits), G (10 bits), H (9 bits), I (7 bits), J (6 bits), K (5 bits),
L (4 bits), M (3 bits), N (2 bits), O (1 bit)
These bits can be laid out in a 16-byte array like this:
Byte Offset 0123456789ABCDEF
Bit
7 HHHHHHHHHIIIIIII 6 GGGGGGGGGGJJJJJJ 5 FFFFFFFFFFFKKKKK 4 EEEEEEEEEEEELLLL 3 DDDDDDDDDDDDDMMM 2 CCCCCCCCCCCCCCNN 1 BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBO 0 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
For example, to test bit X of A, we evaluate ((bits[X] & 1) != 0), or to
test bit X of I, we evaluate ((bits[9 + X] & 0x80) != 0). This can be done
in 1-2 machine instructions on x86, or 4-6 instructions on ARM.
This uses the LPT multiprocessor scheduling algorithm to lay out the bits
efficiently.
Saves ~450KB of instructions in a recent build of Chromium.