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From: bengtl@maths.lth.se (Bengt Larsson)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Frequency of elementary functions (and other things)
Message-ID: <1991May19.080051.29716@lth.se>
Date: 19 May 91 08:00:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: lth.1991May19.080051.29716
References: <9105171235.AA20139@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> <104811@sgi.sgi.com> <12488@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Sender: newsuser@lth.se (LTH network news server)
Reply-To: bengtl@maths.lth.se (Bengt Larsson)
Organization: Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden
Lines: 27

In article <12488@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>
>The original thread, even cited, was the communication between integer and
>floating units.  Even such simple things as multiplication by variable
>integers are very likely as common as exponentiation.  

Give some qualified reason for it being likely common. 

>Another situation
>is Boolean operations on both fixed-point and floating numbers; fixed point
>is not restricted to integers.  

In what algorithms?

>Also, the availability of hardware operations
>leads to their increased use; on a machine with no communication between the
>units, a knowledgeable programmer would  avoid the need by using some other
>algorithm, for example.

Apparently not, if the analysis of various (old) CISC machines count.
There were many operations which were very seldom used, even though
they existed.

Bengt Larsson.
-- 
Bengt Larsson - Dep. of Math. Statistics, Lund University, Sweden
Internet: bengtl@maths.lth.se             SUNET:    TYCHE::BENGT_L