Before You Begin |
This manual describes the floating-point environment supported by software and hardware on SPARC® based systems and x86 based systems running the Solaris Operating System (Solaris OS). Although this manual discusses some general aspects of the SPARC and Intel architectures, it is primarily a reference manual designed to accompany Sun language products.
Certain aspects of the IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic are discussed in this manual. To learn about IEEE arithmetic, see the 18-page Standard. See Appendix F for a brief bibliography on IEEE arithmetic.
This manual is written for those who develop, maintain, and port mathematical and scientific applications or benchmarks. Before using this manual, you should be familiar with the programming language used (Fortran, C, etc.), dbx (the source-level debugger), and the operating system commands and concepts.
Chapter 1 introduces the floating-point environment.
Chapter 2 describes the IEEE arithmetic model, IEEE formats, and underflow.
Chapter 3 describes the mathematics libraries provided with the Sun Studio compilers.
Chapter 4 describes exceptions and shows how to detect, locate, and handle them.
Appendix A contains example programs.
Appendix B describes the floating-point hardware options for SPARC based workstations.
Appendix C lists x86 and SPARC compatibility issues related to the floating-point units used in Intel systems.
Appendix D is an edited reprint of a tutorial on floating-point arithmetic by David Goldberg.
Appendix E discusses standards compliance.
Appendix F includes a list of references and related documentation.
Glossary contains a definition of terms.
The examples in this manual are in C and Fortran, but the concepts apply to either compiler on a SPARC based or x86 based system.
The "pipe" or "bar" symbol separates arguments, only one of which may be chosen. |
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The colon, like the comma, is sometimes used to separate arguments. |
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This Sun Studio release supports systems that use the SPARC® and x86 families of processor architectures: UltraSPARC®, SPARC64, AMD64, Pentium, and Xeon EM64T. The supported systems for the version of the Solaris Operating System you are running are available in the hardware compatibility lists at http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl. These documents cite any implementation differences between the platform types.
In this document, these x86 related terms mean the following:
For supported systems, see the hardware compatibility lists.
The Sun Studio software and its man pages are not installed into the standard /usr/bin/ and /usr/share/man directories. To access the software, you must have your PATH environment variable set correctly (see Accessing the Software). To access the man pages, you must have your MANPATH environment variable set correctly (see Accessing the Man Pages).
For more information about the PATH variable, see the csh(1), sh(1), ksh(1), and bash(1) man pages. For more information about the MANPATH variable, see the man(1) man page. For more information about setting your PATH variable and MANPATH variable to access this release, see the installation guide or your system administrator.
Use the steps below to determine whether you need to change your PATH variable to access the software.
1. Display the current value of the PATH variable by typing the following at a command prompt.
2. On Solaris platforms, review the output to find a string of paths that contain /opt/SUNWspro/bin. On Linux platforms, review the output to find a string of paths that contain /opt/sun/sunstudio11/bin.
If you find the path, your PATH variable is already set to access the software. If you do not find the path, set your PATH environment variable by following the instructions in the next procedure.
On Solaris platforms, add the following path to your PATH environment variable. If you have previously installed Forte Developer software, Sun ONE Studio software, or another release of Sun Studio software, add the following path before the paths to those installations.
On Linux platforms, add the following path to your PATH environment variable.
Use the following steps to determine whether you need to change your MANPATH variable to access the man pages.
1. Request the dbx man page by typing the following at a command prompt.
If the dbx(1) man page cannot be found or if the man page displayed is not for the current version of the software, follow the instructions in the next procedure to set your MANPATH environment variable.
On Solaris platforms, add the following path to your MANPATH environment variable.
On Linux platforms, add the following path to your MANPATH environment variable.
The Sun Studio integrated development environment (IDE) provides modules for creating, editing, building, debugging, and analyzing the performance of a C, C++, or Fortran application.
The command to start the IDE is sunstudio. For details on this command, see the sunstudio(1) man page.
The correct operation of the IDE depends on the IDE being able to find the core platform. The sunstudio command looks for the core platform in two locations:
If the core platform is not installed or mounted to either of the locations where the sunstudio command looks for it, then each user on a client system must set the environment variable SPRO_NETBEANS_HOME to the location where the core platform is installed or mounted (/installation_directory/netbeans/3.5V11).
On Solaris platforms, each user of the IDE also must add /installation_directory/SUNWspro/bin to their $PATH in front of the path to any other release of Forte Developer software, Sun ONE Studio software, or Sun Studio software. On Linux platforms, each user of the IDE also must add /installation_directory/sunstudio11/bin to their $PATH in front of the path to any other release of Sun Studio software.
The path /installation_directory/netbeans/3.5V11/bin should not be added to the user's $PATH.
You can access the documentation at the following locations:
If your software is not installed in the /opt directory on a Solaris platform or the /opt/sun directory on a Linux platform, ask your system administrator for the equivalent path on your system.
The docs.sun.com web site (http://docs.sun.com) enables you to read, print, and buy Sun Microsystems manuals through the Internet. If you cannot find a manual, see the documentation index that is installed with the software on your local system or network.
The documentation is provided in accessible formats that are readable by assistive technologies for users with disabilities. You can find accessible versions of documentation as described in the following table. If your software is not installed in the /opt directory, ask your system administrator for the equivalent path on your system.
HTML at http://docs.sun.com |
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HTML in the installed software on Solaris platforms through the documentation index at file:/opt/SUNWspro/docs/index.html |
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HTML on the Sun Developer Network portal at http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc/documentation/ |
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HTML in the installed software through the documentation index at file:/opt/SUNWspro/docs/index.html on Solaris platforms, and at file:/opt/sun/sunstudio11/docs/index.html on Linux platforms, |
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HTML available through the Help menu and Help buttons in the IDE |
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HTML at http://docs.sun.com |
The following table describes related documentation that is available through the docs.sun.com web site.
Visit the Sun Developer Network Sun Studio portal at http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/cc to find these frequently updated resources:
The Sun Studio portal is one of a number of additional resources for developers at the Sun Developer Network website, http://developers.sun.com.
If you have technical questions about this product that are not answered in this document, go to:
http://www.sun.com/service/contacting
Sun is interested in improving its documentation and welcomes your comments and suggestions. Submit your comments to Sun at this URL:
http://www.sun.com/hwdocs/feedback
Please include the part number of the document in the subject line of your email. For example, the part number for this document is 819-3693-10.
Copyright © 2005, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.