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From: presberg@compass.com (David Presberg)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Subject: Re: INFs and NaNs
Keywords: arithmetic, dataflow
Message-ID: <91-06-027@comp.compilers>
Date: 18 Jun 91 17:49:18 GMT
References: <91-06-016@comp.compilers> <91-06-024@comp.compilers>
Sender: compilers-sender@iecc.cambridge.ma.us
Reply-To: presberg@compass.com (David Presberg)
Organization: Compilers Central
Lines: 24
Approved: compilers@iecc.cambridge.ma.us
In-Reply-To: richarda@cec825.atl.hp.com's message of 17 Jun 91 19:03:50 GMT

In article <91-06-024@comp.compilers> richarda@cec825.atl.hp.com writes:

>   ... I seem to recall that the folks working on dataflow architectures
>  rigorously defined the math for propogating error values so that traps,
>  etc., would not be necessary.  I don't recall the author but I believe the
>  title of the paper was Error Values in Val.

Try "VAL -- A Value-Oriented Algorithmic Language: Preliminary Reference
Manual", William B. Ackerman, Jack B. Dennis, MIT/LCS/TR 218, June 13, 1979.
There are probably more recent articles or tech. reports on the language.
Careful attention is given to the behavior of all forms of computational
(e.g., "undef" operands of an operator, "miss_elt" -- missing component --
of an array object), and arithmetic errors (e.g., there are 20 rules for
errors in integer operations alone, more for reals).

- Pres
        David L. Presberg, Compass, Inc.
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