[Numpy-discussion] bounty for PowerPC SIMD improvements in NumPy

[Ralf Gommers]

Hi all,

Now that I'm in write-long-emails-about-$$ mode, I'll continue with: IBM
just posted at $5500 bounty on BountySource for adding VSX (= PowerPC
equivalent of SSE/AVX SIMD instructions we have for x86) support to NumPy:
https://github.com/numpy/numpy/issues/13393.

This is an interesting experiment I think. There are some potential issues
around this model that I see, because there's basically no "project
management" (for lack of a better word) around bounties. Things that can
potentially go wrong:
- multiple people can show up with competing PRs
- a PR stalls because of lack of reviewer time
- a PR gets rejected because there is no consensus that the feature is
wanted or the implementation is done the right way
- etc

However on the other hand, perhaps it's a good way to get things done that
otherwise won't get done. I don't know yet..... Either way, we will learn
something from this. I will try to keep track of what is going on to try
and avoid the potential issues listed above.

And for full disclosure: IBM did pre-discuss this with us, and it was
brought up on the NumPy Steering Council list first, where there was some
interest and no one raised a stop flag. We can evaluate the success and
desirability of bounties later on.

Cheers,
Ralf
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