Author: David Blackman
Date: 21:31:19 05/14/98
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On May 14, 1998 at 21:35:52, Ivan Tirado wrote: > Ok. So in *normal* micros integer math dominates. Is this necessarily >so? Are you SURE? I do some programming myself, and I remember that the >Glide reference manual ( 3DFX graphics ) states that it uses floating >point math in its library: ( I paraphrase now ) "...because it is MUCH >faster in pentiums..". Was 3DFX wrong when it wrote this? Or am I >confusing something here? ( i.e. is FIXED POINT math == integer math ?? Floating point multiply is faster than integer multiply on a lot of modern cpus, probably including the pentium. Floating divide is sometimes faster than integer divide too. However floating point add, subtract and compare will be slower than integer add, subtract and compare on just about anything. The inside loops of chess programs tend to do a lot of add, subtract and compare, but very little multiply and divide. So integer arithmetic is probably the best choice for chess. It would be different for graphics. Fixed point is nearly the same as integer. You use integers but pretend there is a binary point at some fixed place inside the number. You can do normal integer add and subtract for fixed point. For fixed point multiply or divide you do an integer multiply or divide followed by a shift.
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