# LDDQU — Load Unaligned Integer 128 Bits

Opcode/Instruction | Op/En | 64/32-bit Mode | CPUID Feature Flag | Description
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
F2 0F F0 /r LDDQU xmm1, mem | RM | V/V | SSE3 | Load unaligned data from mem and return double quadword in xmm1.
VEX.128.F2.0F.WIG F0 /r VLDDQU xmm1, m128 | RM | V/V | AVX | Load unaligned packed integer values from mem to xmm1.
VEX.256.F2.0F.WIG F0 /r VLDDQU ymm1, m256 | RM | V/V | AVX | Load unaligned packed integer values from mem to ymm1.

## Instruction Operand Encoding ¶

Op/En | Operand 1 | Operand 2 | Operand 3 | Operand 4
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
RM | ModRM:reg (w) | ModRM:r/m (r) | N/A | N/A

## Description ¶

The instruction is functionally similar to (V)MOVDQU ymm/xmm, m256/m128 for loading from memory. That is: 32/16 bytes of data starting at an address specified by the source memory operand (second operand) are fetched from memory and placed in a destination register (first operand). The source operand need not be aligned on a 32/16-byte boundary. Up to 64/32 bytes may be loaded from memory; this is implementation dependent.

This instruction may improve performance relative to (V)MOVDQU if the source operand crosses a cache line boundary. In situations that require the data loaded by (V)LDDQU be modified and stored to the same location, use (V)MOVDQU or (V)MOVDQA instead of (V)LDDQU. To move a double quadword to or from memory locations that are known to be aligned on 16-byte boundaries, use the (V)MOVDQA instruction.

## Implementation Notes ¶

- If the source is aligned to a 32/16-byte boundary, based on the implementation, the 32/16 bytes may be loaded more than once. For that reason, the usage of (V)LDDQU should be avoided when using uncached or write-combining (WC) memory regions. For uncached or WC memory regions, keep using (V)MOVDQU.
- This instruction is a replacement for (V)MOVDQU (load) in situations where cache line splits significantly affect performance. It should not be used in situations where store-load forwarding is performance critical. If performance of store-load forwarding is critical to the application, use (V)MOVDQA store-load pairs when data is 256/128-bit aligned or (V)MOVDQU store-load pairs when data is 256/128-bit unaligned.
- If the memory address is not aligned on 32/16-byte boundary, some implementations may load up to 64/32 bytes and return 32/16 bytes in the destination. Some processor implementations may issue multiple loads to access the appropriate 32/16 bytes. Developers of multi-threaded or multi-processor software should be aware that on these processors the loads will be performed in a non-atomic way.
- If alignment checking is enabled (CR0.AM = 1, RFLAGS.AC = 1, and CPL = 3), an alignment-check exception (#AC) may or may not be generated (depending on processor implementation) when the memory address is not aligned on an 8-byte boundary.

In 64-bit mode, use of the REX.R prefix permits this instruction to access additional registers (XMM8-XMM15).

Note: In VEX-encoded versions, VEX.vvvv is reserved and must be 1111b otherwise instructions will #UD.

## Operation ¶

### LDDQU (128-bit Legacy SSE Version) ¶

    DEST[127:0] := SRC[127:0]
    DEST[MAXVL-1:128] (Unmodified)

### VLDDQU (VEX.128 Encoded Version) ¶

    DEST[127:0] := SRC[127:0]
    DEST[MAXVL-1:128] := 0

### VLDDQU (VEX.256 Encoded Version) ¶

    DEST[255:0] := SRC[255:0]

## Intel C/C++ Compiler Intrinsic Equivalent ¶

    LDDQU __m128i _mm_lddqu_si128 (__m128i * p);

    VLDDQU __m256i _mm256_lddqu_si256 (__m256i * p);

## Numeric Exceptions ¶

None.

## Other Exceptions ¶

See Table 2-21, “Type 4 Class Exception Conditions.”

Note treatment of #AC varies.