Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!rutgers!phri!roy
From: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: where can I get a copy of the IEEE floating point standards?
Message-ID: <3385@phri.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jul 88 14:33:51 GMT
References: <3259@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith)
Organization: Public Health Research Inst. (NY, NY)
Lines: 38

jsm@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (John Scott McCauley Jr.) writes:
> I am trying to get a copy of the IEEE floating point standards.

	What you want (I think) is "ANSI/IEEE Std 754-1985:  IEEE Standard
for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic".  It available from the IEEE:

	IEEE Service Center
	445 Hoes Lane
	Piscataway, NJ 08854
	(201) 981-0060

When we ordered it, it was $8.50.  It's short; the whole thing is 17 pages,
including the index, appendix, title page, etc.  Another useful address to
have for ordering standards is:

	American National Standards Institute
	1430 Broadway
	New York, NY 10018
	Attn: sales

> is there a program that tests how close a floating point package sticks
> to the standard?

	You might want to read:

%A Eugene H. Spafford
%A John C. Flaspohler
%T A report on the accuracy of some floating point math functions
on selected computers: technical report GIT-ICS 85/06
%I Georgia Institute of Technology
%C Atlanta, Georgia

	I would imagine Dave Hough at Sun would be able to point you to
some more complete studies of IEEE-754 math packages.
-- 
Roy Smith, System Administrator
Public Health Research Institute
{allegra,philabs,cmcl2,rutgers}!phri!roy -or- phri!roy@uunet.uu.net
"The connector is the network"