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