Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!linac!uwm.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!paperboy!hsdndev!husc6!encore!pinocchio.encore.com
From: jkenton@pinocchio.encore.com (Jeff Kenton)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Alignment on RS/6000
Message-ID: <13362@encore.Encore.COM>
Date: 29 Nov 90 14:00:02 GMT
References: <46866@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@Encore.COM
Lines: 35

From article <46866@apple.Apple.COM>, by baum@Apple.COM (Allen J. Baum):
> []
>>In article <13342@encore.Encore.COM> jkenton@pinocchio.encore.com (Jeff Kenton) writes:
>>
>>This is probably true for NaN's and Infinities, but Denorms occur all the
>>time.  printf() often generates them when dealing with floats, and the
>>math library routines do also.
> 
> If you are saying that printf() and the math libraries can produce intermediate
> results internally which are denorm, even if the inputs and outputs aren't,
> would it be possible to re-write them to avoid it (given the impetus that
> perhaps denorms are really slow)?
> 


That's what I meant.  Most of them could be re-written for RISC machines
which do denorms in software, or could request flushing underflow to zero
if there was such an option.













----- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -----
-----  jeff kenton:    	consulting at jkenton@pinocchio.encore.com  -----
-----		        until 11/30/90 -- always at (617) 894-4508  -----
----- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -----