Message-ID: <32F8387D.6210@eik.bme.hu> Date: Wed, 05 Feb 1997 08:36:29 +0100 From: "DR. Andras Solyom" Reply-To: solyom AT eik DOT bme DOT hu Organization: Technical University of Budapest MIME-Version: 1.0 To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: floats v doubles myth References: <199702050444 DOT OAA21257 AT solwarra DOT gbrmpa DOT gov DOT au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Leath Muller wrote: > > Ok, lets try again... :) > > > > Can we *please* kill this myth. > > > On Pentium there is NO speed difference between using a float or double. > > > On 387,486/487 float is slightly *faster* to load, store or read from > > > ram as an operand, than a double. > > > Myth ? which myth? This is true. > > Try this : > > Its not a myth... see the following... > > [big snip...] > > > On my 486dx75, this program prints "20 12", which means the calculation > > in floats is about twice slower than the calculation in doubles. > > > Don't take this badly or the wrong way or anything, I say this nicely: > If you don't have a pentium, don't say anthing. :) Its REALLY REALLY > simple. > > ON THE PENTIUM: ALL FLOATS AND DOUBLES ARE CONVERTED TO 80 BIT VALUES > BY THE FPU BEFORE THE CALCULATION, CALCULATED IN 80 BIT, AND THEN STORED > IN ITS ORIGINAL RESOLUTION (FLOAT/DOUBLE). THIS TAKES *NO* TIME ON A > PENTIUM. > Just for fun: I have checked the code of Francois Charton on my P100 system it printed: 30 21 your code produced a GPF under Win95's in the DOS window Andras