Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!ogicse!decwrl!public!thad
From: thad@public.BTR.COM (Thaddeus P. Floryan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.3b1
Subject: Re: Paranoia freaks under SVS Fortran!
Keywords: spara.f  SERIOUS DEFECTS
Message-ID: <1987@public.BTR.COM>
Date: 2 Mar 91 09:37:46 GMT
References: <1991Mar1.194517.10627@notvax.ccny.cuny.edu>
Organization: BTR Public Access UNIX, MtnView CA, Contact: cs@btr.com 415-966-1429
Lines: 27

In article <1991Mar1.194517.10627@notvax.ccny.cuny.edu> jeffrey@sci.ccny.cuny.edu (Jeffrey Bromberger) writes:
>Before porting over a large graphic library, I decided to run the single
>precision paranoia suite to see how well it handles floating point numbers.
>[...]
>BTW: If anyone out there is interested, I'm using V2.2 (from sometime
>in 1984).  Anybody out there with LPIFortran want to try and run this for 
>comparison?

I tried the Feb 1989 "C" version with double precision and received
essentially the same results that Jeffrey laments.

I checked the results VERY carefully and didn't see anything to cause me
any concern, and I do ALL my financial stuff on the 3B1 (using all my
own programs).

I've tested a large number of other systems and, overall, the 3B1 is not
too bad.  Among the systems were several models of H-P/9000 systems (both
RISC (Spectrum) and 68030/68882), DEC VAX, DEC-20, Apple Mac with A/UX (68020/
68881), Convergent MightyFrame (68020/68881), Amiga (68020/68881) etc. and,
again, I have NO concerns using the 3B1 for financial calculations for my tax
reporting and other purposes.

Sheesh, some of the "serial defects" are of the form of one bit being
off in numbers like 1E+304, and divide by zero ... none of those conditions
are meaningful in MY financial world!  :-)

Thad Floryan [ thad@btr.com (OR) {decwrl, mips, fernwood}!btr!thad ]