changelog: add entry for “field: Remove x86_64 asm” #1451

1. 
   jonasnick commented at 2:23 pm on December 5, 2023: contributor
2. 
   real-or-random commented at 3:39 pm on December 5, 2023: contributor

   • I found it a bit confusing to mention that now --with-asm is faster when we say at the same time that we remove asm.
   • Just --with-asm doesn’t work because that is equivalent to --with-asm= (empty string), you need --with-asm=x86_64.
   • This should probably also mention the CMake option
   • nit: We use the spelling x86_64 in other places (e.g., user-facing build system stuff)
   • not sure if we need to include the link to the benchmark.

   Suggestion: Optional handwritten x86_64 assembly for field operations was removed because modern C compilers are able to output more efficient assembly. This change results in a significant speedup of some library functions when handwritten x86_64 assembly is enabled (--with-asm=x86_64 in GNU Autotools, -DSECP256K1_ASM=x86_64 in CMake), which is the default on x86_64. Benchmarks with GCC 10.5.0 show a 10% speedup for secp256k1_ecdsa_verify and secp256k1_schnorrsig_verify (see #726 (comment)).

3. real-or-random added this to the milestone 0.4.1 on Dec 5, 2023
4. real-or-random added the label user-documentation on Dec 5, 2023
5. changelog: add entry for "field: Remove x86_64 asm" d2e36a2b81
6. jonasnick force-pushed on Dec 5, 2023
7. 
   jonasnick commented at 8:51 pm on December 5, 2023: contributor

   Replaced with your suggestion
8. 
   real-or-random commented at 9:59 pm on December 5, 2023: contributor

   ACK d2e36a2b81c0ba9d28425ea14c1ff6523156ee52

   (see #726 (comment)).

   Just checking if you omitted this intentionally. If you ask me, it’s perfectly fine to omit it, we usually don’t link to the related issues/PRs in the Changelog, so it’s, in fact, consistent with the current changelog.

9. 
   jonasnick commented at 5:15 pm on December 6, 2023: contributor

   Yes, omitted intentionally.
10. real-or-random merged this on Dec 6, 2023
11. real-or-random closed this on Dec 6, 2023

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Contributors
jonasnick real-or-random

Labels
user-documentation

Milestone
0.4.1