increased machine precision for FreeBSD apps?

From: Jay Sern Liew (liew_at_jaysern.org)
Date: 07/11/04

  • Next message: Poul-Henning Kamp: "Re: increased machine precision for FreeBSD apps?" 
    To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Date: Sun, 11 Jul 2004 12:40:04 -0500

    Hello guys,

            This is probably more of an organizational issue than an architectural
    one. In the event of running applications with heavy floating point
    arithmetic (e.g. scientific computation apps for one, encryption
    algorithms, compression, .. etc ), would it be a good idea to decrease
    rounding errors by increasing the data type size?
    e.g. When a programmer declares a floating point variable, the
    compiler/assembler allocates twice(or a multiple of) the space needed,
    hence increasing the precision(and better approximation?). I realize
    this is really just a trade off with execution speed and/or efficiency,
    perhaps unsuitable for real time calculations, but better for those who
    don't mind waiting a little for better results, with less the hardware.
            As a small peek into the future if this thing doesn't sound like
    herecy, we _could_ implement this so that it is transparent to the
    programmer(doing it at the compiler/assembler level), none of the ports
    would need to be rewritten, and could potentially benefit from the
    increased machine precision(where desired). Just an idea for FreeBSD to
    knock on the scientific community's door. (If 2.5 mil web hosts trusts
    FreeBSD for reliability, why can't the more mathematically inclined
    community?)
            I realize that the real scientists(read: well funded, by the big wigs)
    would have at their disposal computers that won't be needing
    this(although they could benefit from this), this would be great for
    home-brewed calculations, maybe students(computer scientists,
    mathematicians, chemists, biologists, meteorologists, .. ), or just any
    DIY-ist. This isn't really a new idea, perhaps comparable to x86-64;
    sure x86-32's may not have the 64-bit physical address space, but they
    can still have the 64-bit(or more) precision, right? I apologize if this
    suggestion has already been brought up before. (I'm not only the kind
    who speaks, I'd aid in the development of this). 

    -- 
Jay Sern Liew <liew@jaysern.org>
liew.jaysern.org
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  • Next message: Poul-Henning Kamp: "Re: increased machine precision for FreeBSD apps?"