Extensions
Forms
4 (2 VEX, 2 EVEX)
Data
Intel XED v2026.08.23

VMOVLPS is the VEX and EVEX form of MOVLPS, whose page covers the merging load and what both vendors’ guides say about loading halves. The store writes the low quadword of an XMM register to 8 bytes, as before. The load takes the high quadword from the first source register and the low one from memory, and zeroes bits 128 and up. The merge is still there, but with a named register, which need not be the destination. Only 128-bit forms exist, as VMOVHPS explains with its #UD cases; the EVEX form (AVX-512F or AVX10.1) reaches XMM16 to XMM31 and takes no mask. With a register in place of memory, the opcode is VMOVHLPS.

On Zen 5, the recorded vmovlps xmm12, xmm6, qword ptr [mem] placed the eight bytes from memory below the high quadword of XMM6 and cleared bits 511:128 of ZMM12, as did {evex} vmovlps xmm1, xmm2, qword ptr [mem] with XMM2; the stores vmovlps qword ptr [mem], xmm1 and its EVEX twin wrote XMM1’s low quadword and left the next bytes alone.

In compiled code

In our builds at -O2 with -march=x86-64-v3 or x86-64-v4, GCC 14 and Clang 23 compile _mm_loadl_pi and _mm_storel_pi to VMOVLPS, and storing elements 0 and 1 of a __m128 to two floats to the store form. Clang also compiles _mm_loadl_pd to VMOVLPS, where GCC uses VMOVLPD. Where the other half of the register is not wanted, as in the first pair of VMOVHPS’s example, Clang loads with VMOVSD, which depends on no register at all.

AMD’s latency spreadsheet for Zen 5 gives VMOVLPS, load or store, one macro-op, two per cycle, with a latency of 1 cycle, in its VEX and EVEX rows alike.

Forms

Every encoding of VMOVLPS that Intel XED knows, one row per XED instruction form (iform). How to read the notation.
InstructionEncodingRequires
VMOVLPS xmm, xmm, m64 VMOVLPS_XMMdq_XMMdq_MEMqVEX.128.NP.0F.WIG 12 /rAVX
VMOVLPS m64, xmm VMOVLPS_MEMq_XMMqVEX.128.NP.0F.WIG 13 /rAVX
VMOVLPS xmm, xmm, m64 VMOVLPS_XMMf32_XMMf32_MEMf32_AVX512EVEX.128.NP.0F.W0 12 /rAVX10.1 or AVX512F
VMOVLPS m64, xmm VMOVLPS_MEMf32_XMMf32_AVX512EVEX.128.NP.0F.W0 13 /rAVX10.1 or AVX512F

Latency and throughput

What the scheduling models of LLVM 23.1.2 give for each form, not measurements: latency / reciprocal throughput in cycles, the ports under them. A row is a model, or models that agree; a dash, a form that its processors lack. Memory forms: latency from the address, ports without the load and store units. Which processors each model covers.
Modelxmm, xmm, m64m64, xmmxmm, xmm, m64
Sandy Bridge7 / 1p51 / 1p4 p23
Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake6 / 1p51 / 1p2347
Skylake-SP6 / 1p51 / 1p23477 / 1p5
Ice Lake7 / 1p51 / 0.5p47897 / 0.5p15
Alder Lake8 / 0.5p1512 / 0.5p4789
Sapphire Rapids8 / 0.5p1512 / 0.5p47898 / 0.5p15
Lunar Lake8 / 0.33V0 V1 V2 V312 / 0.5p10 p11 p25 p26 p27
Piledriver7 / 1.5FPFMA FPU0 FPU12 / 1.5AGLU01 FPSTO FPU2 FPU3 Store
Zen8 / 0.5FPU1 FPU21 / 0.5AGU0 AGU1
Zen 28 / 0.5FPU1 FPU21 / 0.33AGU0 AGU1 AGU2
Zen 38 / 0.5FP1 FP21 / 1FP45 FPSt LSU Store
Zen 48 / 0.5FP1 FP21 / 1FP45 FPSt LSU Store8 / 0.5FP1 FP2
Jaguar6 / 1FPA FPM FPU0 FPU12 / 1FPU1

Data flow

Where the elements of the sources go, element 0 on the right; results that depend on a control value are drawn for an example. How to read.

A load of the low half: m64 becomes the low quadword of the result; the other quadword comes from xmm2.VMOVLPS xmm, xmm, m64
VMOVLPS: the low half loadedResult quadwords 1 to 0: a1, b0.01xmm2ab0a1xmm10m64b

Result quadwords 1 to 0: a1, b0.

A store of the low half: quadword 0 of xmm2 goes to m64.VMOVLPS m64, xmm
VMOVLPS: the low half storedm64 receives quadword 0 of xmm2: a0.01a0m64

m64 receives quadword 0 of xmm2: a0.

Operation

What the forms do, in pseudocode that our tests run against results recorded on real processors. How to read.

VMOVLPS xmm, xmm, m64
xmm1.q[0] = mem.q[0]
xmm1.q[1] = xmm2.q[1]
# xmm1 is zeroed from bit 128 up

Run on AMD Zen 5 (EPYC 9645): 2 cases.

VMOVLPS m64, xmm
mem.q[0] = xmm2.q[0]

Run on AMD Zen 5 (EPYC 9645): 2 cases.

Operands

What each form reads and writes, as Intel XED records it: the operands of its syntax, in order, and the implicit ones that the syntax does not name. How to read.
OperandKindAction
VMOVLPS xmm, xmm, m64
xmmexplicitwrite
xmmexplicitread
m64explicitread
VMOVLPS m64, xmm
m64explicitwrite
xmmexplicitread

Flags

None: XED records no flag that the forms test or change.

Exceptions

The exception class is XED's name for the set of exception conditions that a form follows. How to read.

VEX forms
avx-type-5
EVEX forms
AVX512-E9NF

Intrinsics

The C intrinsics of Clang 23.1.2 that compile to VMOVLPS, each with the form it compiles to and the Clang options it needs. The forms come from compiling every intrinsic and decoding the result with Intel XED; all intrinsics A–Z explains the method.

IntrinsicCompiles to
_mm_storel_epi64 void _mm_storel_epi64(__m128i_u *__p, __m128i __a)

VMOVLPS m64, xmm VEX.128 -mavxwith AVX enabled; Clang emits the equivalent VMOVQ

_mm_storel_pi void _mm_storel_pi(__m64 *__p, __m128 __a)

VMOVLPS m64, xmm VEX.128 -mavxwith AVX enabled; Clang emits the equivalent VMOVLPD

CPUID and processors

Each form belongs to an XED ISA set. A form can be used when the processor reports every CPUID bit of one of its ISA set's alternatives.

CPUID requirements and processors of the XED ISA sets above. Alternatives are separated by “or”; processors follow XED’s chip model, whose AMD processors end with Zen 2, and the CPU data of this site for Zen 3 to Zen 6.

More AVX instructions

All 253 AVX instructions

More AVX10.1 instructions

All 686 AVX10.1 instructions

Sources

  1. Intel XED v2026.08.23 (commit 0bcb6237345c): forms, encodings, operands, flags, exception classes, attributes, ISA sets, CPUID bits and chip model.
  2. The CPU data of x86-64.net: Zen 3 to Zen 6, from GCC’s -march feature sets and AMD’s Processor Programming References, which the page of each processor cites.
  3. Clang's x86 intrinsic headers, LLVM 23.1.2 (commit 85ac56026243): the intrinsics, their signatures and doc comments, and the Clang of that release, which compiled each of them.
  4. LLVM 23.1.2's x86 scheduling models (commit 85ac56026243): the latency, reciprocal throughput and ports of each form, as llvm-mca reports them.
  5. Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 2 (325383-093, September 2026): Volume 2B, page 4-82 (MOVLPS)
  6. Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 1 (253665-093, September 2026)
  7. Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 10.2 Architecture Specification, revision 7.0 (361050-007, April 2026)
  8. Software Optimization Guide for the AMD Zen5 Microarchitecture (58455, rev. 1.00, August 2024), Wayback Machine copy of AMD's ZIP

The tables are derived from Intel XED, Copyright Intel Corporation, licensed under the Apache License 2.0; x86-64.net converted and reformatted them. The intrinsics and their signatures come from Clang and the timings from LLVM's scheduling models, both part of the LLVM Project, licensed under the Apache License 2.0 with LLVM Exceptions. The text is our own.