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From: srm@iris.berkeley.edu (Richard Mateosian;;;5407745;JS93)
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: IEEE 754 "inexact exception"
Message-ID: <1500@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Thu, 23-Oct-86 01:10:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: jade.1500
Posted: Thu Oct 23 01:10:52 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Oct-86 08:15:26 EDT
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Reply-To: srm@iris.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Richard Mateosian)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 13
Keywords: numerical analysis, loss of precision

>
>IEEE floating point requires an "exact" mode which causes a trap any
>time the result of an operation is not exact.  This lets your
>software know that it has picked up dirt, if it cares, and lets
>particularly smart software change to extended precision, long integers,
>or whatever.
>
You will get an inexact flag if you divide 1.0 by 3.0.  It's a signal
that roundoff has occurred, not necessarily that there's been any loss
of precision.

Richard Mateosian    ...ucbvax!ucbiris!srm 	     2919 Forest Avenue     
415/540-7745            srm@iris.Berkeley.EDU        Berkeley, CA  94705