The iterative algorithms for all of the scientific fields that I've worked on don't fall within the subset that you're describing, so no, I'm not going to agree

The iterative algorithms for all of the scientific fields that I've worked on don't fall within the subset that you're describing, so no, I'm not going to agree that you're speaking about the majority of today's algorithms. Weather, climate, finite differencing, FFT... nope. Implicit systems, sure. Radar cross-sections, sure. And as a CPU designer, are you disagreeing that most FP units today take 4 cycles (fully pipelined) (add and multiply, of course)? And that main memory is a lot farther away than that? Given 20 years of experience, you missed out on the Cray PVP machines that were the start of this sub-thread. But the cycle counts I'm giving are modern ones. Cray did eventually implement IEEE in these machines without any significant problems, but that was more than 20 years ago.