diff --git a/Intrinsics_Reference/ch_intro.xml b/Intrinsics_Reference/ch_intro.xml
index 68b439d..1f535d2 100644
--- a/Intrinsics_Reference/ch_intro.xml
+++ b/Intrinsics_Reference/ch_intro.xml
@@ -18,11 +18,69 @@
xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="section_intro">
-
Introduction to Vector Programming on Power
+ Introduction to Vector Programming on POWER
A Brief History
- filler
+
+ The history of vector programming on POWER processors begins
+ with the AIM (Apple, IBM, Motorola) alliance in the 1990s. The
+ AIM partners developed the Power Vector Media Extension (VMX) to
+ accelerate multimedia applications, particularly image
+ processing. VMX is the name still used by IBM for this
+ instruction set. Freescale (formerly Motorola) used the
+ trademark "AltiVec," while Apple at one time called it "Velocity
+ Engine." While VMX remains the most official name, the term
+ AltiVec is still in common use today. Freescale's AltiVec
+ Technology Programming Interface Manual (the "AltiVec PIM") is
+ still available online for reference (see ).
+
+
+ The original VMX specification provided for thirty-two 128-bit
+ vector registers (VRs). Each register can be treated as
+ containing sixteen 8-bit character values, eight 16-bit short
+ integer values, four 32-bit integer values, or four 32-bit
+ single-precision floating-point values (the "VMX data types").
+ Furthermore, the integer data types have signed, unsigned, and
+ boolean variants. An extensive set of arithmetic, logical,
+ comparison, conversion, memory access, and permute class
+ operations were specified to operate on these registers.
+
+
+ The AltiVec PIM documents intrinsic functions to be used by
+ programmers to access the VMX instruction set. Because similar
+ operations are provided for all the VMX data types, the PIM
+ provides for overloaded intrinsics that can operate on different
+ data types. However, such function overloading is not normally
+ acceptable in the C programming language, so compilers compliant
+ with the AltiVec PIM (such as gcc
and
+ clang
) were required to add special handling to
+ their parsers to permit this. The PIM suggested (but did not
+ mandate) the use of a header file,
+ <altivec.h>
, for implementations that provide
+ AltiVec intrinsics. This is common practice for all compliant
+ compilers today.
+
+
+ The first chips incorporating the VMX instruction set were
+ introduced by Freescale in 1999, and used primarly in Apple
+ desktop computers. IBM's last desktop CPU (the PowerPC 970)
+ also included AltiVec support, and was used in the Apple
+ PowerMac G5. IBM initially omitted support for VMX from its
+ server-class computers, but added support for it in the POWER6
+ server family.
+
+
+ Next talk about VSX introduced for P7. Changes in registers and
+ types.
+
+
+ Little-Endian Linux
+
+ Yes, it caused a lot of problems. See chapter on this.
+
+
@@ -30,7 +88,7 @@ xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:id="section_intro">
filler
-