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> along with decimal floating point Source? I'd find this a bit strange because: 1. I suspect decimal floating point is quite expensive to implement computati
by nsajko 4y ago
> along with decimal floating point
Source? I'd find this a bit strange because:
1. I suspect decimal floating point is quite expensive to implement computationally.
2. Not an expert, but I think the floating-point algorithms and proofs for bases other than 2 are less well researched and less well known.
3. A calculator is a resource-constrained device.
4. Are there even any real benefits? Yes, some human-friendly numbers have an exact finite representation that is missing in base-2, but I can't see why would that matter, compared to just using 32-bit or 64-bit IEEE-754.
- adgjlsfhk1 4y agoDecimal floating point is pretty easy to impliment in hardware.
- nsajko 4y agoYou may be confusing floating-point with fixed-point? Hardware with decimal floating-point only appeared in 2007, and still doesn't seem to be easily available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_floating_point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimal_floating_point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POWER6
- Dylan16807 4y agoI expect that's because the cost versus effort for having two kinds of floating point isn't very good. Not because decimal floating point is notably more expensive than binary floating point.
- userbinator 4y agoOne of the more memorable examples: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28559442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28559442 Decimal, and particularly BCD floating point, is much simpler than binary for a calculator since the numbers don't need any additional conversion steps to display. And the fact that 0.1 + 0.1 works as expected is indeed a huge benefit.
- shadowofneptune 4y agoThe TI-83 series of calculators not only uses decimal floating-point, but the format is documented: http://merthsoft.com/linkguide/ti83+/vars.html http://merthsoft.com/linkguide/ti83+/vars.html In practice, the cost is not that much different because four-function calculators do not do many calculations at once. Even in a graphing calculator, drawing a plot is never slow enough to make the device useless.