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Old 04-28-2004, 06:30
gigaman gigaman is offline
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It depends on what you plan to do. These extensions are usually used for "special tasks" (image / sound /video processing...)... forming the "core loops" of specific programs. So, you are likely to find them only on few spaces; they don't form the "backbone" of the programs.
Because some of the extensions are not compatible (i.e you can run 3DNow on Intel CPU), the functions are often put to multiple libraries, each library optimized for one CPU type.

For a beginner, I would suggest to skip these extensions. When you're familiar with the basic instruction set, you can return back to them. They are a separate set, so you won't miss much (required for other things) when you skip them.
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