[Numpy-discussion] a**2 60 times slower than a*a - ONLY for int32

[Sebastian H. <ha...@ms...>]

Hi,
>>> a=N.random.poisson(N.arange(1e6)+1)
>>> U.timeIt('a**2')
0.59
>>> U.timeIt('a*a')
0.01
>>> a.dtype
int32

my U.timeIt function just returns the difference of time in seconds before and 
after evaluation of the string. 
For  
>>> c=N.random.normal(1000, 100, 1e6)
>>> c.dtype
float64
i get .014 seconds  for either c*c or c**2  (I averaged over 100 runs).  After 
converting this to float32 I get 0.008 secs for both.

Can the int32 case be speed up the same way !?

Thanks,
Sebastian Haase