High-Precision Floating-Point Arithmetic in ScientificComputation
At the present time, IEEE 64-bit floating-point arithmetic is sufficiently accurate for most scientific applications. However, for a rapidly growing body of important scientific computing applications, a higher level of numeric precision is required: some of these applications require roughly twice this level; others require four times; while still others require hundreds or more digits to obtain numerically meaningful results. Such calculations have been facilitated by new high-precision software packages that include high-level language translation modules to minimize the conversion effort. These activities have yielded a number of interesting new scientific results in fields as diverse as quantum theory, climate modeling and experimental mathematics, a few of which are described in this article. Such developments suggest that in the future, the numeric precision used for a scientific computation may be as important to the program design as are the algorithms and data structures.
- Research Organization:
- Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley NationalLaboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Director, Office of Science. Office of AdvancedScientific Computing Research. Mathematical, Information, andComputational Sciences Division
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 860342
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL--57487; BnR: YN0100000
- Journal Information:
- Computing in Science and Engineering, Journal Name: Computing in Science and Engineering Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 7
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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