On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 14:51:49 -0600, Physfitfreak wrote:

> The code required in my challenge question will let you convert numbers
> to any other bases you want, integer or not. It's a fun program to
> write, useful too, so I don't know why any of you wouldn't do it.

You have a weird idea of fun and useful.

On 2/20/2024 12:28 PM, rbowman wrote:
> Few
> embedded microprocessors have a FPU so floating point in software is
> expensive.

According to the other link you provided (from HAL Open Science) the
most optimized treatment of power functions require heavy use of FMA
instruction set in the cpu. But not every cpu, if I understand it
correctly, provide such tools in it.

"FMA instruction set" performs a multiplication and an addition in just
one step, so comes handy for computing the case of general y in x^y,
where you have to delve into computing logarithms, cause they actually
either compute:

x^y = 2^[y.log2(x)]

Which is suggested in many sources; or they compute:

x^y = e^[y.log(x)]

as the HAL paper found better in comparison. And the procedure in both
cases involve the use of FMA instruction set.

In the C compiler codes your link gave, looks like, they've had to even
form a large logarithm table, pre-computed for use, to cut down some of
the burden to improve speed.

I wonder if the cpu's that mortals like I (and RonB) use, have that FMA
instruction set in them. What the hell is an "AMD Bulldozer"? It's
supposed to have that ability. Is it something that only the Jack Mormon
here has, or is it part of all of our cpu's these days?

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On 2/20/2024 4:04 PM, rbowman wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 14:51:49 -0600, Physfitfreak wrote:
>
>> The code required in my challenge question will let you convert numbers
>> to any other bases you want, integer or not. It's a fun program to
>> write, useful too, so I don't know why any of you wouldn't do it.
>
> You have a weird idea of fun and useful.

Hehe :) In fact, the only way to get more fun than that is to get paid
for doing it too. Unfortunately, many of us do not get to have THAT
level of fun.

It is called, "enthusiasm," I think. And I believe it is healthier than
reading "The Book of Mormon", or shooting "MDMA" into the system.

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On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:18:13 -0600, Physfitfreak wrote:

> But not every cpu, if I understand it
> correctly, provide such tools in it.

It's a fairly safe bet. For Intel it goes back to most of the 4th gen
Haswell processors. However the Fedora box I'm playing with originally had
a Pentium that didn't but the upgrade to the Core i5 does. AMD has had it
for a while too.

There have been a number of extensions over the years that can be a PITA
as Intel and AMD implement them on different time frames.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_SIMD_Extensions

At one time I had to write a utility to check if a Athlon processor
supported a SSE extension. Not much to it, a little inline asm to snoop
around. Esri had used the latest greatest extensions and they wouldn't run
on older Athlons.

That's a danger of the push to include NPUs in processors. People will use
them, sometimes unknowingly if it's in a library, and the applications
won't work on last year's computers.

On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:37:23 -0600, Physfitfreak wrote:

> On 2/20/2024 4:04 PM, rbowman wrote:
>> On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 14:51:49 -0600, Physfitfreak wrote:
>>
>>> The code required in my challenge question will let you convert
>>> numbers to any other bases you want, integer or not. It's a fun
>>> program to write, useful too, so I don't know why any of you wouldn't
>>> do it.
>>
>> You have a weird idea of fun and useful.
>
>
> Hehe :) In fact, the only way to get more fun than that is to get paid
> for doing it too. Unfortunately, many of us do not get to have THAT
> level of fun.

I've had plenty of fun and also gotten paid for it, but most of it wasn't
math heavy. Particularly with embedded uPs the question is how you're
going to pre-scale the data so you don't have to do FP math and still have
an acceptable outcome. You've got to be sneaky.

On 2/20/2024 6:32 PM, rbowman wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 16:37:23 -0600, Physfitfreak wrote:
>
>> On 2/20/2024 4:04 PM, rbowman wrote:
>>> On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 14:51:49 -0600, Physfitfreak wrote:
>>>
>>>> The code required in my challenge question will let you convert
>>>> numbers to any other bases you want, integer or not. It's a fun
>>>> program to write, useful too, so I don't know why any of you wouldn't
>>>> do it.
>>>
>>> You have a weird idea of fun and useful.
>>
>>
>> Hehe :) In fact, the only way to get more fun than that is to get paid
>> for doing it too. Unfortunately, many of us do not get to have THAT
>> level of fun.
>
> I've had plenty of fun and also gotten paid for it, but most of it wasn't
> math heavy. Particularly with embedded uPs the question is how you're
> going to pre-scale the data so you don't have to do FP math and still have
> an acceptable outcome. You've got to be sneaky.

You've been blessed. But then you got your degree from RPI, one of the
top ones. So no wonder.

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On Tue, 20 Feb 2024 18:55:52 -0600, Physfitfreak wrote:

> You've been blessed. But then you got your degree from RPI, one of the
> top ones. So no wonder.

It was in the '60s although I didn't make full use of the opportunity. My
first choice was Columbia's Asian Studies program although that was
influenced moer by reading Jack Kerouac than reality.

Like many families where you're the first generation to go to college
there is parental pressure to go into engineering. Blue collar parents
have contact with engineers in the work place and they are seen as the way
up the ladder. It's the succeeding generations that go in for medieval
English literature.

Sadly RPI's ranking has slipped over the years. There is a synergy between
technical schools and high tech industries that benefits colleges like MIT
or CalTech. RPI had IBM, although that isn't what it used to be either.
Many other industries fled New York State and the state does not have a
favorable business climate.

I don't think Trump's lawsuit is going to help that. Yes, he was
bullshitting and delivering the real estate equivalent of vaporware but
that's business as usual. The actual parties to the contract were not
discontent. Trump was a political target but it leaves other entrepreneurs
wondering if the excessively rosy pictures they paint prior to an IPO etc
might come back to bite them,

Back to RPI -- it appears they have a video games program and are trying
to leverage that to grow local gaming companies.

https://news.rpi.edu/content/2018/06/26/rensselaer-game-design-program-
among-top-10-nationwide

I realize there is a lot of money in games, almost as much as in porn, but
somehow it isn't the same as building bridges and space craft. At least
they don't have an AI porn program. Yet.

On 2/20/2024 2:08 PM, Lameass Larry Piet wrote:

> the UCBTEST needs to be patched to run on current
> GNU/Linux systems. I have created a patch but I will not share
> it with the COLA idiots.

Like I said earlier that day: "Feeb is a petulant child."