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From: dillon@CORY.BERKELEY.EDU.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: More ST Floating Point Performance
Message-ID: <8706120032.AA13145@cory.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Thu, 11-Jun-87 20:32:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: cory.8706120032.AA13145
Posted: Thu Jun 11 20:32:14 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jun-87 11:18:14 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
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>>	machine		compiler	run time (s)	accuracy
>>	===========	============	========	==========
>....
>>    >>  520ST		MWC 2.0		180		excellent
>>	Amiga 1000	Manx  -lm	25		poor
>
>What good is 8 times faster if it's not right ?
>I'll bet I can write a floating point package that will run 16 times
>faster than the Amiga just as long as you are willing to give up accuracy.
>
>But seriously folks, doesn't the Amiga have a math co-processor ?
>I had heard rumors to that effect but I don't know for sure.

	The Amiga does not have a math co-processor, though it supports a 
68881.  As far as the floating point benchmarks go, you have a choice of
three different floating point formats on the Amiga.  (1) Motorola's
fast floating point (FFP), (2) IEEE double precision floating point, and,
of course, (3) 68881 support.  The one specified above is Motorola's FFP
format, which stores the floating point number in a single longword.  This
format is excellent for most applications, and has an accuracy of about 10 
digits.  Those applications which require more accuracy usually use the double
precision format (two longwords, or 8 bytes).

				-Matt