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Date:      Sun, 11 Jul 2004 12:40:04 -0500
From:      Jay Sern Liew <liew@jaysern.org>
To:        freebsd-arch@freebsd.org
Subject:   increased machine precision for FreeBSD apps?
Message-ID:  <1089567603.746.45.camel@athlon>

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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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