Intel and IEEE 754 (was: Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers?)

From	Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.os.linux.misc
Subject	Intel and IEEE 754 (was: Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers?)
Date	2026-09-05 03:06 +0100
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<117ftfo$140cn$2@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(1 earlier) <18d1ffe2a110b2ac$14913$961095$802601b3@news.usenetexpress.com> <vezmS.24203$GdUb.10990@fx18.iad> <18d2297d52295ee9$799$1885287$802601b3@news.usenetexpress.com> <4mImS.3$Ehb8.1@fx40.iad> <18d2485e404ec839$1915$1536373$802601b3@news.usenetexpress.com>

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On 2026-09-05, Leroy H wrote:

> On Fri, 04 Sep 2026 23:19:28 GMT, Charlie Gibbs wrote:
>
>> 
>> In my 50-plus year career, I can count the number of times I've
>> used floating point on the fingers of one hand.
>> 
>
> The hardware engineers at Intel should sympathize, for they are
> responsible for the biggest floating point blunder of all time --
> and it is still present today in every Intel machine.
>
> I don't want to expound the technical details but the nitty-gritty
> of it all is found here:
>
> <https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2014/10/09/intel-underestimates-error-bounds-by-1-3-quintillion/>
>
> The result of this major Intel flub is that no math library,
> including GNU/Linux GLIBC, uses hardware for trigonometric
> calculations.  Rather they use substitute software routines.
>
> The whole point of hardware is to speed things up significantly
> but Intel ruined the ball game.
>
> There is/has been no fix.  It would cost Intel trillions of
> dollars to replace all the junk hardware.  The best that they
> can offer is a footnote in their programming manuals to be wary
> of hardware trig functions.


From what I'm reading, it's just that they might be off the hook because
fsin (or its precision?) is not specified in the standard. It clearly
isn't the best they can offer, as history can attest.


<gopher://quix.us/0/text/humor/COMPUTER/penthaha.txt>


> Surprisingly (or perhaps not), this HUGE ISSUE is little known
> among programmers.
>

-- 
Nuno Silva

Thread

OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-04 02:20 +0000
  Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-09-04 03:17 +0000
    Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-09-04 12:56 +0000
      Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-04 14:44 +0100
        Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-04 18:48 +0000
      Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-09-04 16:00 +0000
        Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-09-04 23:19 +0000
          Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-09-05 00:59 +0000
          Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-09-05 01:26 +0000
            Intel and IEEE 754 (was: Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers?) Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-05 03:06 +0100
              Re: Intel and IEEE 754 (was: Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers?) Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-09-05 02:27 +0000
            Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-09-05 03:25 -0400
              Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-05 17:56 +0000
          Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-05 21:30 +0000
            Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-09-05 22:38 +0000
              Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-06 01:59 +0000
              Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-06 03:08 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-09-06 03:51 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-06 06:43 +0000
            Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-09-06 02:43 +0000
      Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-04 18:37 +0000
        Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-09-04 21:20 -0400
          Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Leroy H <lh@somewhere.net> - 2026-09-05 01:40 +0000
          Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-05 03:46 +0000
            Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-09-05 03:36 -0400
              Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-05 18:09 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-05 19:23 +0100
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-06 02:49 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-09-06 03:51 +0000
      Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-04 22:36 +0000
      Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-06 06:50 +0000
        Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2026-09-07 04:14 -0400
          Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-07 12:05 +0100
            Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-09-07 09:17 -0400
              Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-07 15:02 +0100
              Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-07 19:16 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-07 22:26 +0100
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-09-08 04:18 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-08 04:38 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-09-08 05:43 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-09-09 04:25 +0000
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-09 09:35 +0100
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Chris Ahlstrom <OFeem1987@teleworm.us> - 2026-09-07 18:58 -0400
                Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-08 04:47 +0000
            Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2026-09-14 17:18 +0000
  Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-05 02:50 +0100
    Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-05 08:37 +0100
      Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-09-05 10:20 +0100
        Re: OT: Does Computer Science Need Computers? rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2026-09-05 18:31 +0000

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