Redo readme in better-looking rst form

README.rst

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+==============================
+Intel(r) SPMD Program Compiler
+==============================
+
+``ispc`` is a compiler for a variant of the C programming language, with
+extensions for `single program, multiple data
+<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPMD>`_ programming.  Under the SPMD model,
+the programmer writes a program that generally appears to be a regular
+serial program, though the execution model is actually that a number of
+*program instances* execute in parallel on the hardware.
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+``ispc`` compiles a C-based SPMD programming language to run on the SIMD
+units of CPUs; it frequently provides a 3x or more speedup on CPUs with
+4-wide vector SSE units and 5x-6x on CPUs with 8-wide AVX vector units,
+without any of the difficulty of writing intrinsics code.  Parallelization
+across multiple cores is also supported by ``ispc``, making it
+possible to write programs that achieve performance improvement that scales
+by both number of cores and vector unit size.
+
+There are a few key principles in the design of ``ispc``:
+
+  * To build a small set of extensions to the C language that
+    would deliver excellent performance to performance-oriented
+    programmers who want to run SPMD programs on the CPU.
+
+  * To provide a thin abstraction layer between the programmer
+    and the hardware--in particular, to have an execution and
+    data model where the programmer can cleanly reason about the
+    mapping of their source program to compiled assembly language
+    and the underlying hardware.
+
+  * To make it possible to harness the computational power of SIMD
+    vector units without the extremely low-programmer-productivity
+    activity of directly writing intrinsics.
+
+  * To explore opportunities from close coupling between C/C++
+    application code and SPMD ``ispc`` code running on the
+    same processor--to have lightweight function calls between
+    the two languages and to share data directly via pointers without
+    copying or reformatting.
+
+``ispc`` is an open source compiler with the BSD license.  It uses the
+remarkable `LLVM Compiler Infrastructure <http://llvm.org>`_ for back-end
+code generation and optimization and is `hosted on
+github <http://github.com/ispc/ispc/>`_. It supports Windows, Mac, and
+Linux, with both x86 and x86-64 targets.  It currently supports the SSE2,
+SSE4, and AVX instruction sets.
+
+Features
+--------
+
+``ispc`` provides a number of key features to developers:
+
+  * Familiarity as an extension of the C programming
+    language: ``ispc`` supports familiar C syntax and
+    programming idioms, while adding the ability to write SPMD
+    programs.
+
+  * High-quality SIMD code generation: the performance
+    of code generated by ``ispc`` is often close to that of
+    hand-written intrinsics code.
+
+  * Ease of adoption with existing software
+    systems: functions written in ``ispc`` directly
+    interoperate with application functions written in C/C++ and
+    with application data structures.
+            
+  * Portability across over a decade of CPU
+    generations: ``ispc`` has targets for SSE2, SSE4, AVX
+    (and soon, AVX2).
+
+  * Portability across operating systems: Microsoft
+    Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux are all supported
+    by ``ispc``.
+
+  * Debugging with standard tools: ``ispc``
+    programs can be debugged with standard debuggers (OS X and
+    Linux only).
+
+Additional Resources
+--------------------
+
+Prebuilt ``ispc`` binaries for Windows, OS X and Linux can be downloaded
+from the `ispc downloads page <http://ispc.github.com/downloads.html>`_.
+See also additional
+`documentation <http://ispc.github.com/documentation.html>`_ and additional
+`performance information <http://ispc.github.com/perf.html>`_.

README.txt

@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-==============================
-Intel(r) SPMD Program Compiler
-==============================
-
-Welcome to the Intel(r) SPMD Program Compiler (ispc)!  
-
-ispc is a new compiler for "single program, multiple data" (SPMD)
-programs. Under the SPMD model, the programmer writes a program that mostly
-appears to be a regular serial program, though the execution model is
-actually that a number of program instances execute in parallel on the
-hardware. ispc compiles a C-based SPMD programming language to run on the
-SIMD units of CPUs; it frequently provides a a 3x or more speedup on CPUs
-with 4-wide SSE units, without any of the difficulty of writing intrinsics
-code.
-
-ispc is an open source compiler under the BSD license; see the file
-LICENSE.txt.  ispc supports Windows, Mac, and Linux, with both x86 and
-x86-64 targets.  It currently supports the SSE2, SSE4, and AVX instruction
-sets.
-
-For more information and examples, as well as a wiki and the bug database,
-see the ispc distribution site, http://ispc.github.com.