I used to write "machine code" - that means programming the computer using the lowest level instructions that were directly implemented in hardware. We didn't use high-level languages because of speed. In those days, I used to count clock cycles.

Because of that knowledge, I can tell you this. On a modern machine easily capable of 4 billion instructions per second, the fastest possible hand-written machine language implementation of these math nodes would run at a rate of about 500 million per second. The reason I only get 20 million per second is because the program is written in a high level language. Meaning a lot of stuff is written by computers instead of clever humans, resulting in wasted time.

I'm pretty certain I could actually make a node-based system that would run at around the 500 million per second rate. Still, 20 Meganodes per second isn't bad.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)