[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

math coprocessors

• To: mathgroup at yoda.ncsa.uiuc.edu
• Subject: math coprocessors
• From: jdelany at sargas.ACS.CalPoly.EDU (Jim Delany)
• Date: Sat, 20 Oct 90 11:30:23 PDT

Richard Fateman's note on the pitfalls of relying on the Motorola floating
point coprocessor prompts me to share the example I like to use:    


Mathematica (sun3.68881) 1.2 (November 6, 1989) [With pre-loaded data]
 ...

In[1]:= x = 2^100;

In[2]:= N[ Sin[x] ]

Out[2]= 0.973158

In[3]:= N[ Sin[x], 40 ]

Out[3]= -0.872183605


The difference between the hardware and software values is almost 2.
Does anyone have a sharper example?


Jim Delany   ( jdelany at cosmos.acs.calpoly.edu )

Math Department, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo  CA  93407