1. At a computer system including at least one processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of computing systems, a computer-implemented method for implementing a generic single instruction multiple data (SIMD) type in software code, the method comprising: an act of accessing a portion of software code that includes an algorithm with a generic SIMD data type, the generic SIMD data type including a variable number of elements, wherein the algorithm with the generic SIMD data type is to be processed by a specific processor that includes one or more specific hardware features; an act of determining at runtime a portion of customized processor-specific code that is to be used with the specified processor based on the generic SIMD data type, wherein the runtime determination resolves the number of elements that are to be used with the specified processor; and an act of processing the software code including the algorithm with the generic SIMD data type using the determined, customized processor-specific code.