Most compilers produce exclusively SSE instructions for floating point these days (unless you're explicitly generating code for machines that don't support it).  But the stack doesn't need to be aligned at the call site for this, it can be done in the preamble of whatever function uses it (it costs one BAND instruction).<p>The stack is not aligned at function entry because the CALL instruction pushes the address on the stack, thus having alignment at the call site forces the stack to be unaligned at function entry, however, it is unaligned by a known amount so you can produce aligned addresses by subtracting a constant value (skipping the BAND instruction).  The featured rant misses this point, you get aligned addresses just as easily at the bottom of your frame as at the top.