Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!njin!princeton!udel!mmdf
From: iphwk%MTSUNIX1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Bill Kinnersley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 68881 and the PA
Message-ID: <6180@louie.udel.EDU>
Date: 1 Jan 89 00:31:06 GMT
Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU
Lines: 23


[In "Re: 68881 and the PA", William J. Coldwell said:]
:
: The math chip will only speed up IEEE math functions, not FFP, or regular
: integer/transcendental math functions.
:
: What it will speed up: Programs that are compiled to use IEEE by the IEEE
: libraries (provided on the WB1.3 enhancer or the PA disk).
:
: It iss a good bet that anything that uses math intensive functions will
: eventually be recompiled for IEEE.
:
Only for those applications for which the need for Double Precision
is more important than the need for speed or compatibility.
For Single Precision applications, FFP is still faster, math chip or no.
And everyone has FFP.

Post a Whetstone rating for the PA and I might change my mind.


--Bill Kinnersley
  Physics Department   Montana State University    Bozeman, MT 59717
  INTERNET: iphwk@terra.oscs.montana.edu      BITNET: IPHWK@MTSUNIX1