Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ll-xn!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!PT.CS.CMU.EDU!POGO.CAMELOT.CS.CMU.EDU!abh
From: abh@POGO.CAMELOT.CS.CMU.EDU (Andrew Hastings)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: single vs double float
Message-ID: <790@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>
Date: 2 Feb 88 17:55:42 GMT
References: <235@unicom.UUCP> <28200089@ccvaxa> <3127@phri.UUCP> <408@micropen> <10420@mimsy.UUCP>
Sender: netnews@PT.CS.CMU.EDU
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 9
Summary: CRAY C treats `double' as `float'

In article <10420@mimsy.UUCP>, chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes:
> (Personally, I think new architectures should make single precision
> 64 bits and double precision 128 bits....)

CRAY computers have had 64 bit single precision since their introduction
in 1976.  The CRAY C compiler treats `double' as `float' (i.e., floating
arithmetic is performed in single precision) since double precision is
about an order of magnitude slower than single precision on these machines.

-Andrew Hastings		abh@cs.cmu.edu			412/268-8734