News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on 16-bit math look-up tables – the unexpected power of scaled-integer math. Parent comment

Re:16-bit math look-up tables – the unexpected power of scal... by dnautics on Saturday April 01, 2017 @07:08PM (#14014683)
>is the lack of NaNs seems like a bug rather than a feature.

I think this is a reasonable concern. I'll propose to John that we make there be an optional "mode" where the infinity token is treated as "NaN". In reality, this mode just amounts to "ignore NaN traps", because the way that it's done in my hardware models, it requires almost no extra hardware.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:16-bit math look-up tables – the unexpected power of scal... by jacobolus on Saturday April 01, 2017 @08:23PM (#14014967)
What if we want both NaN and infinity?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:16-bit math look-up tables – the unexpected power of scal... by dnautics on Saturday April 01, 2017 @09:15PM (#14015149)
if you really want both, then either 1) use IEEE floats or 2) write your own data type, or 3) used a boxed data type, which is really the best solution for the dominant "missing data" abuse case anyways.
[ Parent | on HN ]