Instruction
VPUNPCKLDQ
Interleaves the low doublewords of each 128-bit lane of two sources.
VPUNPCKLDQ is the VEX and EVEX form of PUNPCKLDQ,
whose page covers the interleave of low doublewords and what compilers
build with it. The newer encodings write a separate destination, read
memory at any alignment and zero the register above the vector length.
VEX.128 needs AVX and VEX.256 AVX2; the EVEX forms need AVX512F (with
AVX512VL below 512 bits) or AVX10.1, and add a write mask per
doubleword and a broadcast doubleword as the second source.
VPUNPCKLBW explains the 128-bit lanes: on Zen 5,
vpunpckldq ymm0, ymm13, ymm9 filled the upper lane from doublewords 4
and 5 of each source, AC9F9285h and 90837669h first, and used
doublewords 2, 3, 6 and 7 nowhere.
A broadcast doubleword
With a broadcast, every odd doubleword of the result is the same value.
In the recorded vpunpckldq xmm14{k4}{z}, xmm8, dword bcst [mem], k4
selected only the even elements, and the result was the two low
doublewords of XMM8 zero-extended to quadwords. Neither compiler folds
a broadcast in our builds: for _mm512_unpacklo_epi32(a, _mm512_set1_epi32(*p)), GCC 14 loads it with
VPBROADCASTD first and Clang 23 uses a
VPERMT2D instead.
In compiled code
In our builds at -O2 with -march=x86-64-v3, GCC interleaves two
int32_t arrays, c[2*i] = a[i]; c[2*i+1] = b[i], with VPUNPCKLDQ,
VPUNPCKHDQ and two VPERM2I128
that put the lanes in order. Clang unpacks with VUNPCKLPS and VUNPCKHPS
and spells even _mm256_unpacklo_epi32 that way, as PUNPCKLDQ’s page
explains for SSE. At -march=x86-64-v4 neither unpacks: GCC
interleaves with VPERMT2D, Clang with VPERMT2PS.
Intel’s optimization manual transposes BF16 matrices for AMX by treating pairs of words as doublewords: masked VBROADCASTI32X4 loads put a different row in each 128-bit lane, and the doubleword and quadword unpacks then transpose a block in every lane at once (Section 20.16.3, Example 20-28). AMD’s latency spreadsheet for Zen 5 gives the VEX and EVEX rows alike one cycle and four per cycle.
Forms
| Instruction | Encoding | Requires |
|---|---|---|
VPUNPCKLDQ xmm, xmm, m128
VPUNPCKLDQ_XMMdq_XMMdq_MEMdq | VEX.128.66.0F.WIG 62 /r | AVX |
VPUNPCKLDQ xmm, xmm, xmm
VPUNPCKLDQ_XMMdq_XMMdq_XMMdq | VEX.128.66.0F.WIG 62 /r | AVX |
VPUNPCKLDQ ymm, ymm, m256
VPUNPCKLDQ_YMMqq_YMMqq_MEMqq | VEX.256.66.0F.WIG 62 /r | AVX2 |
VPUNPCKLDQ ymm, ymm, ymm
VPUNPCKLDQ_YMMqq_YMMqq_YMMqq | VEX.256.66.0F.WIG 62 /r | AVX2 |
VPUNPCKLDQ zmm {k}{z}, zmm, zmm
VPUNPCKLDQ_ZMMu32_MASKmskw_ZMMu32_ZMMu32_AVX512 | EVEX.512.66.0F.W0 62 /r | AVX10.1 or AVX512F |
VPUNPCKLDQ zmm {k}{z}, zmm, m512/m32bcst
VPUNPCKLDQ_ZMMu32_MASKmskw_ZMMu32_MEMu32_AVX512 | EVEX.512.66.0F.W0 62 /r | AVX10.1 or AVX512F |
VPUNPCKLDQ xmm {k}{z}, xmm, xmm
VPUNPCKLDQ_XMMu32_MASKmskw_XMMu32_XMMu32_AVX512 | EVEX.128.66.0F.W0 62 /r | AVX10.1 or AVX512F + AVX512VL |
VPUNPCKLDQ xmm {k}{z}, xmm, m128/m32bcst
VPUNPCKLDQ_XMMu32_MASKmskw_XMMu32_MEMu32_AVX512 | EVEX.128.66.0F.W0 62 /r | AVX10.1 or AVX512F + AVX512VL |
VPUNPCKLDQ ymm {k}{z}, ymm, ymm
VPUNPCKLDQ_YMMu32_MASKmskw_YMMu32_YMMu32_AVX512 | EVEX.256.66.0F.W0 62 /r | AVX10.1 or AVX512F + AVX512VL |
VPUNPCKLDQ ymm {k}{z}, ymm, m256/m32bcst
VPUNPCKLDQ_YMMu32_MASKmskw_YMMu32_MEMu32_AVX512 | EVEX.256.66.0F.W0 62 /r | AVX10.1 or AVX512F + AVX512VL |
Latency and throughput
| Model | xmm, xmm, m128xmm {k}{z}, xmm, m128/m32bcst | xmm, xmm, xmmxmm {k}{z}, xmm, xmmymm {k}{z}, ymm, ymm | ymm, ymm, m256ymm {k}{z}, ymm, m256/m32bcst | ymm, ymm, ymm | zmm {k}{z}, zmm, zmm | zmm {k}{z}, zmm, m512/m32bcst |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandy Bridge | 7 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 0.5p15 | ||||
| Haswell, Skylake | 7 / 1p5 | 1 / 1p5 | 8 / 1p5 | 1 / 1p5 | ||
| Broadwell | 6 / 1p5 | 1 / 1p5 | 7 / 1p5 | 1 / 1p5 | ||
| Skylake-SP | 7 / 1p5 | 1 / 1p5 | 8 / 1p5 | 1 / 1p5 | 1 / 1p5 | 8 / 1p5 |
| Ice Lake | 7 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 0.5p15 | 8 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 1p5 | 8 / 1p5 |
| Alder Lake | 8 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 0.5p15 | 9 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 0.5p15 | ||
| Sapphire Rapids | 8 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 0.5p15 | 9 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 0.5p15 | 1 / 1p5 | 9 / 1p5 |
| Lunar Lake | 8 / 0.5V2 V3 | 1 / 0.5V2 V3 | 9 / 0.5V2 V3 | 1 / 0.5V2 V3 | ||
| Piledriver | 7 / 1.5FPU1 FPXBR | 2 / 1FPU1 FPXBR | ||||
| Zen | 8 / 0.5FPU1 FPU2 | 1 / 0.5FPU1 FPU2 | 8 / 1FPU1 FPU2 | 1 / 1FPU1 FPU2 | ||
| Zen 2 | 8 / 0.5FPU1 FPU2 | 1 / 0.5FPU1 FPU2 | 8 / 0.5FPU1 FPU2 | 1 / 0.5FPU1 FPU2 | ||
| Zen 3 | 8 / 0.5FP1 FP2 | 1 / 0.5FP1 FP2 | 8 / 0.5FP1 FP2 | 1 / 0.5FP1 FP2 | ||
| Zen 4 | 8 / 0.5FP1 FP2 | 1 / 0.5FP1 FP2 | 8 / 0.5FP1 FP2 | 1 / 0.5FP1 FP2 | 1 / 1FP1 FP2 | 8 / 1FP1 FP2 |
| Jaguar | 6 / 1FPU0 FPU1 VALU0 VALU1 | 1 / 0.5FPU0 FPU1 VALU0 VALU1 | ||||
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.
The ymm and zmm forms repeat this in each 128-bit lane. The EVEX forms write under a mask: where its bit is 0, the element keeps its old value, or zeroes it with {z}. With m32bcst, one doubleword from memory stands for every element of xmm3.
Result doublewords 3 to 0: b1, unchanged (bit 2 of k1 is 0), b0, a0.
Operation
What the forms do, in pseudocode that our tests run against results recorded on real processors. How to read.
for i in range(VL // 32):
j = i - i % 4 + i % 4 // 2 # in the lane of i
if k1[i]: # 1 without a write mask
if i % 2 == 0:
zmm1.d[i] = zmm2.d[j]
else:
zmm1.d[i] = src3.d[j]
elif zeroing:
zmm1.d[i] = 0
# else: zmm1.d[i] keeps its value
# m32bcst: src3.d[i] is the m32 for every i
# zmm1 is zeroed from bit VL upRun on AMD Zen 5 (EPYC 9645): 10 cases.
Operands
| Operand | Kind | Action |
|---|---|---|
VPUNPCKLDQ xmm, xmm, xmm/m128 VPUNPCKLDQ ymm, ymm, ymm/m256 | ||
xmm, ymm | explicit | write |
xmm, ymm | explicit | read |
xmm/m128, ymm/m256 | explicit | read |
VPUNPCKLDQ xmm {k}{z}, xmm, xmm/m128/m32bcst VPUNPCKLDQ ymm {k}{z}, ymm, ymm/m256/m32bcst VPUNPCKLDQ zmm {k}{z}, zmm, zmm/m512/m32bcst | ||
xmm, ymm, zmm | explicit | write (masked) |
{k} | explicit | read (write mask) |
xmm, ymm, zmm | explicit | read |
xmm/m128/m32bcst, ymm/m256/m32bcst, zmm/m512/m32bcst | explicit | read |
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-4- EVEX forms
AVX512-E4NF
Attributes
What else XED records about the forms. How to read.
- EVEX forms
- write masking
- EVEX memory forms
- embedded broadcast (tuple Full)
Intrinsics
The C intrinsics of Clang 23.1.2 that compile to VPUNPCKLDQ, 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.
| Intrinsic | Compiles to |
|---|---|
_mm_unpacklo_epi32
__m128i _mm_unpacklo_epi32(__m128i __a, __m128i __b) |
|
_mm_mask_unpacklo_epi32
__m128i _mm_mask_unpacklo_epi32(__m128i __W, __mmask8 __U, __m128i __A, __m128i __B) |
|
_mm_maskz_unpacklo_epi32
__m128i _mm_maskz_unpacklo_epi32(__mmask8 __U, __m128i __A, __m128i __B) |
|
_mm256_unpacklo_epi32
__m256i _mm256_unpacklo_epi32(__m256i __a, __m256i __b) |
|
_mm256_mask_unpacklo_epi32
__m256i _mm256_mask_unpacklo_epi32(__m256i __W, __mmask8 __U, __m256i __A, __m256i __B) |
|
_mm256_maskz_unpacklo_epi32
__m256i _mm256_maskz_unpacklo_epi32(__mmask8 __U, __m256i __A, __m256i __B) |
|
_mm512_unpacklo_epi32
__m512i _mm512_unpacklo_epi32(__m512i __A, __m512i __B) |
|
_mm512_mask_unpacklo_epi32
__m512i _mm512_mask_unpacklo_epi32(__m512i __W, __mmask16 __U, __m512i __A, __m512i __B) |
|
_mm512_maskz_unpacklo_epi32
__m512i _mm512_maskz_unpacklo_epi32(__mmask16 __U, __m512i __A, __m512i __B) |
|
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.
More AVX instructions
- VPSRAD
- VPSRAW
- VPSRLD
- VPSRLDQ
- VPSRLQ
- VPSRLW
- VPSUBB
- VPSUBD
- VPSUBQ
- VPSUBSB
- VPSUBSW
- VPSUBUSB
- VPSUBUSW
- VPSUBW
- VPTEST
- VPUNPCKHBW
- VPUNPCKHDQ
- VPUNPCKHQDQ
- VPUNPCKHWD
- VPUNPCKLBW
- VPUNPCKLQDQ
- VPUNPCKLWD
- VPXOR
- VRCPPS
- VRCPSS
- VROUNDPD
- VROUNDPS
- VROUNDSD
- VROUNDSS
- VRSQRTPS
- VRSQRTSS
- VSHUFPD
- VSHUFPS
- VSQRTPD
- VSQRTPS
- VSQRTSD
- VSQRTSS
- VSTMXCSR
- VSUBPD
- VSUBPS
More AVX2 instructions
- VPOR
- VPSADBW
- VPSHUFB
- VPSHUFD
- VPSHUFHW
- VPSHUFLW
- VPSIGNB
- VPSIGND
- VPSIGNW
- VPSLLD
- VPSLLDQ
- VPSLLQ
- VPSLLVD
- VPSLLVQ
- VPSLLW
- VPSRAD
- VPSRAVD
- VPSRAW
- VPSRLD
- VPSRLDQ
- VPSRLQ
- VPSRLVD
- VPSRLVQ
- VPSRLW
- VPSUBB
- VPSUBD
- VPSUBQ
- VPSUBSB
- VPSUBSW
- VPSUBUSB
- VPSUBUSW
- VPSUBW
- VPUNPCKHBW
- VPUNPCKHDQ
- VPUNPCKHQDQ
- VPUNPCKHWD
- VPUNPCKLBW
- VPUNPCKLQDQ
- VPUNPCKLWD
- VPXOR
More AVX10.1 instructions
- VPSUBSB
- VPSUBSW
- VPSUBUSB
- VPSUBUSW
- VPSUBW
- VPTERNLOGD
- VPTERNLOGQ
- VPTESTMB
- VPTESTMD
- VPTESTMQ
- VPTESTMW
- VPTESTNMB
- VPTESTNMD
- VPTESTNMQ
- VPTESTNMW
- VPUNPCKHBW
- VPUNPCKHDQ
- VPUNPCKHQDQ
- VPUNPCKHWD
- VPUNPCKLBW
- VPUNPCKLQDQ
- VPUNPCKLWD
- VPXORD
- VPXORQ
- VRANGEPD
- VRANGEPS
- VRANGESD
- VRANGESS
- VRCP14PD
- VRCP14PS
- VRCP14SD
- VRCP14SS
- VRCPPH
- VRCPSH
- VREDUCEPD
- VREDUCEPH
- VREDUCEPS
- VREDUCESD
- VREDUCESH
- VREDUCESS
Sources
- Intel XED v2026.08.23 (commit
0bcb6237345c): forms, encodings, operands, flags, exception classes, attributes, ISA sets, CPUID bits and chip model. - The CPU data of x86-64.net: Zen 3 to Zen 6, from GCC’s
-marchfeature sets and AMD’s Processor Programming References, which the page of each processor cites. - 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. - LLVM 23.1.2's x86 scheduling models (commit
85ac56026243): the latency, reciprocal throughput and ports of each form, as llvm-mca reports them. - Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 2 (325383-093, September 2026): Volume 2B, page 4-512 (PUNPCKLBW/
PUNPCKLWD/ PUNPCKLDQ/ PUNPCKLQDQ) - Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 1 (253665-093, September 2026)
- Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 10.2 Architecture Specification, revision 7.0 (361050-007, April 2026)
- Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Optimization Reference Manual, Volume 1 (248966-051, October 2026)
- 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.