From: utzoo!decvax!decwrl!sun!gnu Newsgroups: net.micro.68k Title: Re: 68K vs 286 on floats Article-I.D.: sun.209 Posted: Mon Mar 7 21:23:32 1983 Received: Tue Mar 8 07:38:22 1983 References: utzoo.2839 Henry Spencer of U.T. is right about the relative capabilities of 32-bit software float and 64-bit (80-bit internally) IEEE float. 32-bit float is not for serious float work. It does OK for graphics, though. By the way, anyone have a decent exponential routine for the 8087? A friend of mine is doing the float math routines for an APL on the IBM PC and since the 8087 only does sorta exponential on a very limited domain, his routine turns out longer and slower than he expects is possible. The documentation claims the domain of the critical instruction is 0 to .5 whereas -.5 to +.5 would be reasonable -- if this is known to be a typo, please let me know. (What was this about Intel's "awe-inspiring" specs? At least the 68881 will have a true exponential instruction -- when it arrives in a year...) John Gilmore, Sun Microsystems