4 ms·
The ideas are (1) gradual instead of hard overflow [IEEE floats do gradual underflow via denormals], (2) crowding representable numbers more precisely around 1
by jacobolus 7y ago
The ideas are (1) gradual instead of hard overflow [IEEE floats do gradual underflow via denormals], (2) crowding representable numbers more precisely around 1 while letting very large or very small numbers get less and less precise, vs. floating point which (except for denormals) is scale free within its range, (3) making a format which can be extended by just adding bits without new definitions, so that you can get more or less precise numbers as needed by just adding zeros or truncating, (4) a it more uniform logic for basic arithmetic with fewer edge cases.
It's a bit sad that many of the creator’s claims are exaggerated and his examples cherry-picked though.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- FabHK 7y ago> floating point which (except for denormals) is scale free within its range Presumably that's what you mean by scale free, but let's spell it out: It's denser around 0, then has uniform density between, say, 1/8 and 1/4, half that density between 1/4 and 1/2, half that between 1/2 and 1, half that between 1 and 2, etc. etc. If x = 1.0e22, you can add a million and it's still the same.
- hinkley 7y agoI recall in some of these earlier conversations, people pointing out that there are game engines where they invert some of their calculations to prevent artifacts caused by loss of significant figures with certain numbers.