On 6/28/2014 7:01 AM, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
On 6/28/14, 3:42 AM, Walter Bright wrote:
Inverting matrices is commonplace for solving N equations with N
unknowns.
Actually nobody does that.
I did that at Boeing when doing analysis of the movement of the control
linkages. The traditional way it had been done before was using paper and pencil
with drafting tools - I showed how it could be done with matrix math.
I have an alarm go off when someone proffers a very strong conviction. Very
strong convictions means there is no listening to any argument right off the
bat, which locks out any reasonable discussion before it even begins.
So far, everyone here has dismissed my experienced out of hand. You too, with
"nobody does that". I don't know how anyone here can make such a statement. How
many of us have worked in non-programming engineering shops, besides me?
For better or worse modern computing units have focused on 32- and 64-bit float,
leaving 80-bit floats neglected.
Yep, for the game/graphics industry. Modern computing has also produced crappy
trig functions with popular C compilers, because nobody using C cares about
accurate answers (or they just assume what they're getting is correct - even worse).
I think it's time to accept that simple fact
and act on it, instead of claiming we're the best in the world at FP math while
everybody else speeds by.
Leaving us with a market opportunity for precision FP.
I note that even the title of this thread says nothing about accuracy, nor did
the benchmark attempt to assess if there was a difference in results.
