SummaryWe investigate the performance characteristics of a numerically enhanced scalar product (dot) kernel loop that uses the Kahan algorithm to compensate for numerical errors, and describe efficient single instruction multiple data‐vectorized implementations on recent multi‐core and many‐core processors. Using low‐level instruction analysis and the execution‐cache‐memory performance model, we pinpoint the relevant performance bottlenecks for single‐core and thread‐parallel execution and predict performance and saturation behavior. We show that the Kahan‐enhanced scalar product comes at almost no additional cost compared with the naive (non‐Kahan) scalar product if appropriate low‐level optimizations, notably single instruction multiple data vectorization and unrolling, are applied. The execution‐cache‐memory model is extended appropriately to accommodate not only modern Intel multicore chips but also the Intel Xeon Phi ‘Knights Corner’ coprocessor and an IBM POWER8 CPU. This allows us to discuss the impact of processor features on the performance across four modern architectures that are relevant for high performance computing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.