From: dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)
Subject: Re: fixed point vs floating point
Date: 1997/11/24
Date: 1997-11-24T00:00:00+00:00 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <dewar.880417337@merv> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 65c58j$1302@mean.stat.purdue.edu
Herman says
<<That fixed point arithmetic is so slow on computers is due to the fact
that the hardware manufacturers, partly influenced by those gurus who
do not see the uses of fixed point, have combined several fixed point
instructions to produce floating point in such a way that it is very
difficult to use it for anything else. It would not be difficult for
the hardware to allow the fixed point part of the floating unit to be
available to the user, and it would allow considerable speedup.
<<
There is no problem in implementing fast integer or fractional integer
multiply and divide, using the same techniques as are used for floating-point.
However, apart from a few people on soapboxes, there is no demand for such
instructions, let alonge fast implementations of them (the Transputer is
one of the very few machines that provides a fractional binary scaled
multiply instruction).
next prev parent reply other threads:[~1997-11-24 0:00 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 64+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
1997-11-22 0:00 fixed point vs floating point Matthew Heaney
1997-11-22 0:00 ` Tucker Taft
1997-11-22 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-11-22 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1997-11-23 0:00 ` Geert Bosch
1997-11-23 0:00 ` Tom Moran
1997-11-25 0:00 ` John A. Limpert
1997-11-25 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-11-25 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-11-23 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1997-11-23 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-11-24 0:00 ` Herman Rubin
1997-11-24 0:00 ` Robert Dewar [this message]
1997-11-25 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1997-11-25 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1997-11-25 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-11-25 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1997-11-25 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-11-26 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1997-11-26 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-01 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1997-12-01 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-01 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1997-12-03 0:00 ` robin
1997-11-26 0:00 ` William A Whitaker
1997-11-24 0:00 ` Geert Bosch
1997-11-24 0:00 ` Vince Del Vecchio
1997-11-24 0:00 ` Vince Del Vecchio
1997-12-03 0:00 ` robin
[not found] <9711221603.AA03295@nile.gnat.com>
1997-11-22 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1997-11-27 0:00 tmoran
1997-11-27 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-11-29 0:00 ` Tarjei T. Jensen
1997-11-28 0:00 tmoran
1997-11-28 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-02 0:00 Robert Dewar
1997-12-02 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1997-12-02 0:00 ` Ken Garlington
1997-12-03 0:00 ` Joe Gwinn
1997-12-04 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-04 0:00 ` Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
1997-12-02 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-02 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1997-12-03 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-03 0:00 ` robin
1997-12-03 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-03 0:00 ` Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
1997-12-03 0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1997-12-04 0:00 ` Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz
1997-12-04 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-03 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-03 0:00 ` Robert Dewar
1997-12-03 0:00 ` robin
2011-09-29 10:25 RasikaSrinivasan@gmail.com
2011-09-29 10:49 ` AdaMagica
2011-09-29 13:38 ` Martin
2011-09-30 10:17 ` Stephen Leake
2011-09-30 16:25 ` tmoran
2011-09-30 16:52 ` Dmitry A. Kazakov
2011-10-01 11:09 ` Stephen Leake
2011-09-30 19:26 ` tmoran
2011-09-30 22:31 ` tmoran
2011-10-01 13:37 ` RasikaSrinivasan@gmail.com
2011-10-02 14:19 ` Stephen Leake
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