Numerical Computation Guide |
The Math Libraries
This chapter describes the math libraries provided with the Solaris operating environment and Sun WorkShop Compilers. Besides listing each of the libraries along with its contents, this chapter discusses some of the features supported by the math libraries provided with Sun WorkShop Compilers, including IEEE supporting functions, random number generators, and functions that convert data between IEEE and non-IEEE formats.
The contents of the
libm
andlibsunmath
libraries are also listed on theintro
(3M) man page.Standard Math Library
The
libm
math library contains the functions required by the various standards to which the Solaris operating system conforms. This library is bundled with the Solaris operating system in two forms:libm.a
, the static version, andlibm.so
, the shared version.The default directories for a standard installation of
libm
are:
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/lib/libm.a
/opt/SUNWspro/lib/libm.so
/usr/lib/libm.a
/usr/lib/libm.so
The default directories for standard installation of the header files for
libm
are:
/usr/include/floatingpoint.h
/usr/include/math.h
/usr/include/sys/ieeefp.h
TABLE 3-1 lists the functions in
libm
.
Note that the functions
gamma_r
andlgamma_r
are reentrant versions ofgamma
andlgamma
.As noted above, the standard math library may be installed in two different locations: the libraries located in
/usr/lib
are bundled with the Solaris operating environment and are installed on all systems, while the libraries located in/opt/SUNWspro
are supplied with the Sun WorkShop Compilers and are only available on systems that have access to a compiler installation. While the two sets of libraries provide exactly the same functions with the same interfaces, there are minor differences between the two. First, the functions in the standard math library provided with the compilers may be faster than those in the library bundled with the Solaris operating environment. Second, although both libraries have comparable accuracy, the results delivered by a particular function for a given argument may differ in the least significant bits. Most programs are not particularly sensitive to the numerical differences between these libraries, but the differences can cause minor variations when a program linked with the sharedlibm.so
is run on two different systems, one with thelibm.so
supplied with the compilers and one with only the default Solarislibm.so
. (Minor differences may also be observed when a program is run on systems with different Solaris releases.)There are several ways to prevent a program from producing varying results depending on the math library it uses.
- Ensure that the desired version of
libm.so
is available on all systems where the program is to be run and that the directory containing this version oflibm.so
is included in theRPATH
specified via the-R
option when the program was compiled or in theLD_LIBRARY_PATH
orLD_RUN_PATH
in effect when the program is run. This directory must appear before any other directory that contains alibm.so
.- Preload a particular version of
libm.so
, either one provided with the compilers or one bundled within Solaris, by setting the environment variableLD_PRELOAD
to the full path name of the library.- Link with the static archive
libm.a
.See the
ld(1)
and compiler manual pages for more information about dynamic and static linking and the options and environment variables that determine which shared objects are loaded when a program is run.Additional Math Libraries
Sun Math Library
The library
libsunmath
is part of the libraries supplied with all Sun language products. The librarylibsunmath
contains a set of functions that were incorporated in previous versions oflibm
from Sun.The default directories for a standard installation of
libsunmath
are:
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/lib/libsunmath.a
/opt/SUNWspro/lib/libsunmath.so
The default directories for standard installation of the header files for
libsunmath
are:
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/include/cc/sunmath.h
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/include/f77/f77_floatingpoint.h
TABLE 3-2 lists the functions in
libsunmath
. For each mathematical function, the table gives only the name of the double precision version of the function as it would be called from a C program
TABLE 3-2 Contents of libsunmath
Functions from TABLE 3-1 single and extended/quadruple precision available, except for matherr
Elementary transcendental functions exp2
,exp10
,log2,
sincos
Trigonometric functions in degrees asind
,acosd
,atand
,atan2d
,sind
,cosd
,sincosd
,tand
Trigonometric functions scaled in asinpi
,acospi
,atanpi
,atan2pi,
sinpi
,cospi
,sincospi
,tanpi
Trigonometric functions with double precision argument reduction asinp
,acosp
,atanp,
sinp
,cosp
,sincosp
,tanp
Financial functions annuity
,compound
Integral rounding functions aint
,anint
,irint
,nint
IEEE standard recommended functions signbit
IEEE classification functions fp_class
,isinf
,isnormal
,issubnormal
,iszero
Functions that supply useful IEEE values min_subnormal
,max_subnormal
,min_normal
,max_normal,
infinity
,signaling_nan
,quiet_nan
Additive random number generators i_addran_
,i_addrans_
,i_init_addrans_
,i_get_addrans_
,i_set_addrans_
,r_addran_
,r_addrans_
,r_init_addrans_
,r_get_addrans_
,r_set_addrans_
,d_addran_
,d_addrans_
,d_init_addrans_
,d_get_addrans_
,d_set_addrans_
,u_addrans_
Linear congruential random number generators i_lcran_
,i_lcrans_
,i_init_lcrans_
,i_get_lcrans_
,i_set_lcrans_
,r_lcran_
,r_lcrans_
,d_lcran_
,d_lcrans_
,u_lcrans_
Multiply-with-carry random number generators i_mwcran_
,i_mwcrans_
,i_init_mwcrans_
,i_get_mwcrans_
,i_set_mwcrans
,i_lmwcran_
,i_lmwcrans_
,i_llmwcran_
,i_llmwcrans_
,u_mwcran_
,u_mwcrans_
,u_lmwcran_
,u_lmwcrans
,u_llmwcran_
,u_llmwcrans_
,r_mwcran_
,r_mwcrans_
,d_mwcran_
,d_mwcrans_
,smwcran_
Random number shufflers i_shufrans_
,r_shufrans_
,d_shufrans_
,u_shufrans_
Data conversion convert_external
Control rounding mode and floating-point exception flags ieee_flags
Floating-point trap handling ieee_handler,sigfpe
Show status ieee_retrospective
Enable/disable nonstandard arithmetic standard_arithmetic
,nonstandard_arithmetic
.Optimized Libraries
Optimized versions of some of the routines in
libm
are provided in the librarylibmopt
. Optimized versions of some of the support routines inlibc
are provided in the librarylibcopt
. Finally, on SPARC systems, alternate forms of somelibc
support routines are provided inlibcx
.The default directories for a standard installation of
libmopt
,libcopt
, andlibcx
are:
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/lib/<arch>/libmopt.a
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/lib/<arch>/libcopt.a
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/lib/<arch>/libcx.a
(SPARC only)/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/lib/<arch>/libcx.so.1
(SPARC only)(Here
<arch>
denotes one of the architecture-specific library directories. On SPARC, these directories includev7
,v8
,v8a
,v8plus
,v8plusa
,v8plusb
,v9
,v9a
,and v9b
. On x86 platforms, the only directory provided isf80387
.)For a complete description of -
xarch
, see the Fortran, C, or C++ user's guide.The routines contained in
libcopt
are not intended to be called by the user directly. Instead, they replace support routines inlibc
that are used by the compiler.The routines contained in
libmopt
replace corresponding routines inlibm
. Thelibmopt
versions are generally noticeably faster. Note that unlike thelibm
versions, which can be configured to provide any of ANSI/POSIX, SVID, X/Open, or IEEE-style treatment of exceptional cases, thelibmopt
routines only support IEEE-style handling of these cases. (See Appendix E.)To link with both
libmopt
andlibcopt
usingcc
, give the-lmopt
and-lcopt
options on the command line. (For best results, put-lmopt
immediately before-lm
and put-lcopt
last.) To link with both libraries using any other compiler, specify the -xlibmopt flag anywhere on the command line.SPARC: Library
libcx
contains faster versions of the 128-bit quadruple precision floating point arithmetic support routines. These routines are not intended to be called directly by the user; instead, they are called by the compiler. The Fortran 77 compiler links withlibcx
automatically unless the -nocx flag is used, but the C compiler does not automatically link withlibcx
. To uselibcx
with C programs, link with -lcx.A shared version of
libcx
, calledlibcx.so.1
, is also provided. This version can be preloaded at run time by setting the environment variableLD_PRELOAD
to the full path name of thelibcx.so.1
file. For best performance, use the appropriate version oflibcx.so.1
for your system's architecture. For example, on an UltraSPARC system, assuming the library is installed in the default location, setLD_PRELOAD
as follows:
setenv LD_PRELOAD /opt/SUNWspro/lib/v8plus/libcx.so.1
LD_PRELOAD=/opt/SUNWspro/lib/v8plus/libcx.so.1 export LD_PRELOAD
Vector Math Library (SPARC only)
On SPARC platforms, the library
libmvec
provides routines that evaluate common mathematical functions for an entire vector of arguments.The default directory for a standard installation of
libmvec
is:
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/lib/<arch>/libmvec.a
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/lib/<arch>/libmvec_mt.a
TABLE 3-3 lists the functions in
libmvec
.
Note that
libmvec_mt.a
provides parallel versions of the vector functions that rely on multiprocessor parallelization. To uselibmvec_mt.a
, you must link with -xparallel
.See the
libmvec
(3m) andclibmvec
(3m) manual pages for more information.
libm9x
Math LibraryThe
libm9x
math library contains some of the math and floating-point related functions specified in C99. In the Sun Workshop 6 compilers release, this library contains the<fenv.h>
Floating-Point Environment functions as well as enhancements to support improved handling of floating-point exceptions.The default directory for a standard installation of
libm9x
is:
/opt/SUNWspro/lib/libm9x.so
The default directories for standard installation of the header files for
libm9x
are:
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/include/cc/fenv.h
/opt/SUNWspro/
<release>/include/cc/fenv96.h
TABLE 3-4 lists the functions in
libm9x
. (The precision control functionsfegetprec
andfesetprec
are available only on x86 platforms.)
Note that
libm9x
is provided as a shared library only. Thecc
compiler does not automatically search for libraries in the shared library installation directory when linking. Therefore, to link withlibm9x
usingcc
, you must enable both the static linker and the run-time linker to locate the library. You can enable the static linker to locatelibm9x
in one of three ways:
- specify
-L/opt/SUNWspro/lib
before-lm9x
on the command line,- give the full path name
/opt/SUNWspro/lib/libm9x.so
on the command line, or- add
/opt/SUNWspro/lib
to the list of directories specified by the environment variableLD_LIBRARY_PATH
.You can enable the run-time linker to locate
libm9x
in one of three ways:
- specify
-R/opt/SUNWspro/lib
when linking,- add
/opt/SUNWspro/lib
to the list of directories specified by the environment variableLD_RUN_PATH
when linking, or- add
/opt/SUNWspro/lib
to the list of directories specified by the environment variableLD_LIBRARY_PATH
at run time.
Note Adding/opt/SUNWspro/lib
to the environment variableLD_LIBRARY_PATH
can cause a program linked with the Sun Performance Library to use a different version of that library than the one best suited for the system on which the program is run. To use bothlibm9x
and the Sun Performance Library in a program linked withcc
, do not add/opt/SUNWspro/lib
toLD_LIBRARY_PATH
. Instead, just specify-xlic_lib=sunperf
before-lm9x
on the command line.
All other Sun Workshop Compilers automatically search the shared library installation directory. To link with
libm9x
using any of these compilers, simply specify-lm9x
on the command line. (Whilelibm9x
is primarily intended to be used with C/C++ programs, it is possible to use it with Fortran programs; see Appendix A for an example.)Single, Double, and Long Double Precision
Most numerical functions are available in single, double, and long-double precision. Examples of calling different precision versions from different languages are shown in TABLE 3-5.
In C, names of single-precision functions are formed by appending
f
to the double-precision name, and names of quadruple-precision functions are formed by addingl
. Because Fortran calling conventions differ,libsunmath
providesr_
...,d_
..., andq_
... versions for single, double, and quadruple precision functions, respectively. Fortran intrinsic functions can be called by the generic name for all three precisions.Not all functions have
q_
... versions. Refer tomath.h
andsunmath.h
for names and definitions oflibm
andlibsunmath
functions.In Fortran programs, remember to declare
r_
... functions asreal
,d_
... functions as double precision, andq_
... functions asreal*16
. Otherwise, type mismatches might result.
Note The x86 edition of Fortran supports real and double precision only; it does not supportREAL*16
. The x86 edition of C, however, supports long double.
IEEE Support Functions
This section describes the IEEE recommended functions, the functions that supply useful values,
ieee_flags
,ieee_retrospective
, andstandard_arithmetic
andnonstandard_arithmetic
. Refer to Chapter 4 for more information on the functionsieee_flags
andieee_handler
.
ieee_functions
(3m) andieee_sun
(3m)The functions described by
ieee_functions
(3m) andieee_sun
(3m) provide capabilities either required by the IEEE standard or recommended in its appendix. These are implemented as efficient bit mask operations.
The
remainder(x,y)
is the operation specified in IEEE Standard 754-1985. The difference betweenremainder(x,y)
andfmod(x,y)
is that the sign of the result returned byremainder(x,y)
might not agree with the sign of eitherx
ory
, whereasfmod(x,y)
always returns a result whose sign agrees withx
. Both functions return exact results and do not generate inexact exceptions.
TABLE 3-9
signbit(x)
i=ir_signbit(x)
i=id_signbit(x)
i=iq_signbit(x)
Callingieee_sun
from Fortran
Note You must declared_
function as double precision andq_
function asREAL*16
in the Fortran program that uses them.
ieee_values
(3m)IEEE values like infinity, NaN, maximum and minimum positive floating-point numbers are provided by the functions described by the
ieee_values
(3m) man page. TABLE 3-10, TABLE 3-11, TABLE 3-12, and TABLE 3-12 show the decimal values and hexadecimal IEEE representations of the values provided byieee_values
(3m) functions.
TABLE 3-12 IEEE Values: Quadruple Precision (SPARC)
ieee_flags
(3m)
ieee_flags
(3m) is the Sun interface to:
- Query or set rounding direction mode
- Query or set rounding precision mode
- Examine, clear, or set accrued exception flags
The syntax for a call to
ieee_flags
(3m) is:
i = ieee_flags(
action,
mode,
in,
out)
;The ASCII strings that are the possible values for the parameters are shown in TABLE 3-14:
The
ieee_flags
(3m) man page describes the parameters in complete detail.Some of the arithmetic features that can be modified by using
ieee_flags
are covered in the following paragraphs. Chapter 4 contains more information on ieee_flags and IEEE exception flags.When mode is
direction
, the specified action applies to the current rounding direction. The possible rounding directions are: round towards nearest, round towards zero, round towards +, or round towards -. The IEEE default rounding direction is round towards nearest. This means that when the mathematical result of an operation lies strictly between two adjacent representable numbers, the one nearest to the mathematical result is delivered. (If the mathematical result lies exactly halfway between the two nearest representable numbers, then the result delivered is the one whose least significant bit is zero. The round towards nearest mode is sometimes called round to nearest even to emphasize this.)Rounding towards zero is the way many pre-IEEE computers work, and corresponds mathematically to truncating the result. For example, if 2/3 is rounded to 6 decimal digits, the result is .666667 when the rounding mode is round towards nearest, but .666666 when the rounding mode is round towards zero.
When using
ieee_flags
to examine, clear, or set the rounding direction, possible values for the four input parameters
TABLE 3-15 ieee_flags
Input Values for the Rounding Directionaction get, set, clear, clearall in nearest, tozero, negative, positive out nearest, tozero, negative, positive
are shown in TABLE 3-15.When mode is
precision
, the specified action applies to the current rounding precision. On x86 platforms, the possible rounding precisions are: single, double, and extended. The default rounding precision is extended; in this mode, arithmetic operations that deliver a result to a floating point register round their result to the full 64-bit precision of the extended double register format. When the rounding precision is single or double, arithmetic operations that deliver a result to a floating point register round their result to 24 or 53 significant bits, respectively. Although most programs produce results that are at least as accurate, if not more so, when extended rounding precision is used, some programs that require strict adherence to the semantics of IEEE arithmetic will not work correctly in extended rounding precision mode and must be run with the rounding precision set to single or double as appropriate.Rounding precision cannot be set on systems using SPARC processors. On these systems, calling ieee_flags with mode =
precision
has no effect on computation.Finally, when mode is
exception
, the specified action applies to the current IEEE exception flags. See Chapter 4 for more information about usingieee_flags
to examine and control the IEEE exception flags.
ieee_retrospective
(3m)The
libsunmath
functionieee_retrospective
prints information about unrequited exceptions and nonstandard IEEE modes. It reports:
- Outstanding exceptions.
- Enabled traps.
- If rounding direction or precision is set to other than the default.
- If nonstandard arithmetic is in effect.
The necessary information is obtained from the hardware floating-point status register.
ieee_retrospective
prints information about exception flags that are raised, and exceptions for which a trap is enabled. These two distinct, if related, pieces of information should not be confused. If an exception flag is raised, then that exception occurred at some point during program execution. If a trap is enabled for an exception, then the exception may not have actually occurred (but if it had, a SIGFPE signal would have been delivered). Theieee_retrospective
message is meant to alert you about exceptions that may need to be investigated (if the exception flag is raised), or to remind you that exceptions may have been handled by a signal handler (if the exception's trap is enabled.) Chapter 4 discusses exceptions, signals, and traps, and shows how to investigate the cause of a raised exception.
ieee_retrospective
can be called anytime, but it is usually called before exit points. Programs compiled withf77
callieee_retrospective
on exit by default.The syntax for calling this function is:
- C, C++
ieee_retrospective(
fp);
- Fortran
call ieee_retrospective()
For the C function, the argument fp specifies the file to which the output will be written. The Fortran function always prints output on
stderr
.The following example shows four of the six
ieee_retrospective
warning messages:
A warning message appears only if trapping is enabled or an exception was raised.
You can suppress
ieee_retrospective
messages from Fortran programs by one of three methods. One approach is to clear all outstanding exceptions, disable traps, and restore round-to-nearest, extended precision, and standard modes before the program exits. To do this, callieee_flags
,ieee_handler
, andstandard_arithmetic
as follows:
character*8 outi = ieee_flags('clearall', '', '', out)call ieee_handler('clear', 'all', 0)call standard_arithmetic()
Note Clearing outstanding exceptions without investigating their cause is not recommended.
Another way to avoid seeing
ieee_retrospective
messages is to redirectstderr
to a file. Of course, this method should not be used if the program sends output other thanieee_retrospective
messages tostderr
.The third approach is to include a dummy
ieee_retrospective
function in the program, for example:
subroutine ieee_retrospectivereturnend
nonstandard_arithmetic
(3m)As discussed in Chapter 2, IEEE arithmetic handles underflowed results using gradual underflow. On some SPARC systems, gradual underflow is often implemented partly with software emulation of the arithmetic. If many calculations underflow, this may cause performance degradation.
To obtain some information about whether this is a case in a specific program, you can use
ieee_retrospective
orieee_flags
to determine if underflow exceptions occur, and check the amount of system time used by the program. If a program spends an unusually large amount of time in the operating system, and raises underflow exceptions, gradual underflow may be the cause. In this case, using non-IEEE arithmetic may speed up program execution.The function
nonstandard_arithmetic
causes underflowed results to be flushed to zero on those SPARC implementations that have a mode in hardware in which flushing to zero is faster. The trade-off for speed is accuracy, because the benefits of gradual underflow are lost.The function
standard_arithmetic
resets the hardware to use the default IEEE arithmetic. Both functions have no effect on implementations that provide only the default IEEE 754 style of arithmetic--SuperSPARCTM is such an implementation.C99 Floating Point Environment Functions
This section describes the <
fenv.h
> floating point environment functions in C99. In the Sun WorkShop 6 compilers release, these functions are available in thelibm9x.so
library. They provide many of the same capabilities as theieee_flags
function, but they use a more natural C interface, and because they are defined by C99, they may prove to be more portable in the future.
Note For consistent behavior, do not use both C99 floating point environment functions and exception handling extensions inlibm9x.so
and the ieee_flags andieee_handler
functions inlibsunmath
in the same program.
Exception Flag Functions
The
fenv.h
file defines macros for each of the five IEEE floating point exception flags:FE_INEXACT
,FE_UNDERFLOW
,FE_OVERFLOW
,FE_DIVBYZERO
, andFE_INVALID
. In addition, the macroFE_ALL_EXCEPT
is defined to be the bitwise "or" of all five flag macros. In the following descriptions, the excepts parameter may be a bitwise "or" of any of the five flag macros or the valueFE_ALL_EXCEPT
. For thefegetexceptflag
andfesetexceptflag
functions, the flagp parameter must be a pointer to an object of typefexcept_t
. (This type is defined infenv.h
.)C99 defines the following exception flag functions:
The
feclearexcept
function clears the specified flags. The fetestexcept function returns a bitwise "or" of the macro values corresponding to the subset of flags specified by the excepts argument that are set. For example, if the only flags currently set are inexact, underflow, and division by zero, theni = fetestexcept(FE_INVALID | FE_DIVBYZERO);The
feraiseexcept
function causes a trap if any of the specified exceptions' trap is enabled. (See Chapter 4 for more information on exception traps.) Otherwise, it merely sets the corresponding flags.The
fegetexceptflag
andfesetexceptflag
functions provide a convenient way to temporarily save the state of certain flags and later restore them. In particular, thefesetexceptflag
function does not cause a trap; it merely restores the values of the specified flags.Rounding Control
The
fenv.h
file defines macros for each of the four IEEE rounding direction modes:FE_TONEAREST
,FE_UPWARD
(toward positive infinity),FE_DOWNWARD
(toward negative infinity), andFE_TOZERO
. C99 defines two functions to control rounding direction modes:fesetround
sets the current rounding direction to the direction specified by its argument (which must be one of the four macros above), andfegetround
returns the value of the macro corresponding to the current rounding direction.On x86 platforms, the
fenv.h
file defines macros for each of three rounding precision modes:FE_FLTPREC
(single precision),FE_DBLPREC
(double precision), andFE_LDBLPREC
(extended double precision). Although they are not part of C99,libm9x.so
on x86 provides two functions to control the rounding precision mode:fesetprec
sets the current rounding precision to the precision specified by its argument (which must be one of the three macros above), andfegetprec
returns the value of the macro corresponding to the current rounding precision.Environment Functions
The
fenv.h
file defines the data typefenv_t
, which represents the entire floating point environment including exception flags, rounding control modes, exception handling modes, and, on SPARC, nonstandard mode. In the descriptions that follow, the envp parameter must be a pointer to an object of typefenv_t
.C99 defines four functions to manipulate the floating point environment.
libm9x.so
provides an additional function that may be useful in multi-threaded programs. These functions are summarized in the following table:
The
fegetenv
andfesetenv
functions respectively save and restore the floating point environment. The argument tofesetenv
may be either a pointer to an environment previously saved by a call tofegetenv
orfeholdexcept
or the constantFE_DFL_ENV
defined infenv.h
. The latter represents the default environment with all exception flags clear, rounding to nearest (and to extended double precision on x86), nonstop exception handling mode (i.e., traps disabled), and on SPARC, nonstandard mode disabled.The
feholdexcept
function saves the current environment and then clears all exception flags and establishes nonstop exception handling mode for all exceptions. Thefeupdateenv
function restores a saved environment (which may be one saved by a call tofegetenv
orfeholdexcept
or the constantFE_DFL_ENV
), then raises those exceptions whose flags were set in the previous environment. If the restored environment has traps enabled for any of those exceptions, a trap occurs; otherwise the flags are set. These two functions may be used in conjunction to make a subroutine call appear to be atomic with regard to exceptions, as the following code sample shows:
The
fex_merge_flags
function performs a logicalOR
of the exception flags from the saved environment into the current environment without provoking any traps. This function may be used in a multi-threaded program to preserve information in the parent thread about flags that were raised by a computation in a child thread. See Appendix A for an example showing the use offex_merge_flags
.Implementation Features of
libm
andlibsunmath
This section describes implementation features of
libm
andlibsunmath
:
- Argument reduction using infinitely precise , and trigonometric functions scaled in .
- Data conversion routines for converting floating-point data between IEEE and non-IEEE formats.
- Random number generators.
About the Algorithms
The elementary functions in
libm
andlibsunmath
on SPARC systems are implemented with an ever-changing combination of table-driven and polynomial/rational approximation algorithms. Some elementary functions inlibm
andlibsunmath
on x86 platforms are implemented using the elementary function kernel instructions provided in the x86 instruction set; other functions are implemented using the same table-driven or polynomial/rational approximation algorithms used on SPARC.Both the table-driven and polynomial/rational approximation algorithms for the common elementary functions in
libm
and the common single precision elementary functions inlibsunmath
deliver results that are accurate to within one unit in the last place (ulp). On SPARC, the common quadruple precision elementary functions inlibsunmath
deliver results that are accurate to within one ulp, except for theexpm1l
andlog1pl
functions, which deliver results accurate to within two ulps. (The common functions include the exponential, logarithm, and power functions and circular trigonometric functions of radian arguments. Other functions, such as the hyperbolic trig functions and higher transcendental functions, are less accurate.) These error bounds have been obtained by direct analysis of the algorithms. Users can also test the accuracy of these routines usingBeEF
, the Berkeley Elementary Function test programs, available fromnetlib
in theucbtest
package (http://www.netlib.org/fp/ucbtest.tgz
).Argument Reduction for Trigonometric Functions
Trigonometric functions for radian arguments outside the range [-/4,/4] are usually computed by reducing the argument to the indicated range by subtracting integral multiples of /2.
Because is not a machine-representable number, it must be approximated. The error in the final computed trigonometric function depends on the rounding errors in argument reduction (with an approximate as well as the rounding), and approximation errors in computing the trigonometric function of the reduced argument. Even for fairly small arguments, the relative error in the final result might be dominated by the argument reduction error, while even for fairly large arguments, the error due to argument reduction may be no worse than the other errors.
There is widespread misapprehension that trigonometric functions of all large arguments are inherently inaccurate, and all small arguments relatively accurate. This is based on the simple observation that large enough machine-representable numbers are separated by a distance greater than .
There is no inherent boundary at which computed trigonometric function values suddenly become bad, nor are the inaccurate function values useless. Provided that the argument reduction is done consistently, the fact that the argument reduction is performed with an approximation to is practically undetectable, because all essential identities and relationships are as well preserved for large arguments as for small.
libm
andlibsunmath
trigonometric functions use an "infinitely" precise for argument reduction. The value 2/ is computed to 916 hexadecimal digits and stored in a lookup table to use during argument reduction.The group of functions
sinpi
,cospi
, andtanpi
(see TABLE 3-2) scales the input argument by to avoid inaccuracies introduced by range reduction.Data Conversion Routines
In
libm
andlibsunmath
, there is a flexible data conversion routine,convert_external
, used to convert binary floating-point data between IEEE and non-IEEE formats.Formats supported include those used by SPARC (IEEE), IBM PC, VAX, IBM S/370, and Cray.
Refer to the man page on
convert_external
(3m) for an example of taking data generated on a Cray, and using the functionconvert_external
to convert the data into the IEEE format expected on SPARC systems.Random Number Facilities
There are three facilities for generating uniform pseudo-random numbers in 32-bit integer, single precision floating point, and double precision floating point formats:
- The functions described in the
addrans
(3m) manual page are based on a family of table-driven additive random number generators.- The functions described in the
lcrans
(3m) manual page are based on a linear congruential random number generator.- The functions described in the
mwcrans
(3m) manual page are based on multiply-with-carry random number generators. These functions also include generators that supply uniform pseudo-random numbers in 64-bit integer formats.In addition, the functions described on the
shufrans
(3m) manual page may be used in conjunction with any of these generators to shuffle an array of pseudo-random numbers, thereby providing even more randomness for applications that need it. (Note that there is no facility for shuffling arrays of 64-bit integers.)Each of the random number facilities includes routines that generate one random number at a time (i.e., one per function call) as well as routines that generate an array of random numbers in a single call. The functions that generate one random number at a time deliver numbers that lie in the ranges shown in TABLE 3-18
.The functions that generate an entire array of random numbers in a single call allow the user to specify the interval in which the generated numbers will lie. Appendix A gives several examples that show how to generate arrays of random numbers uniformly distributed over different intervals.
Note that the
addrans
andmwcrans
generators are generally more efficient than thelcrans
generators, but their theory is not as refined. "Random Number Generators: Good Ones Are Hard To Find", by S. Park and K. Miller, Communications of the ACM, October 1988, discusses the theoretical properties of linear congruential algorithms. Additive random number generators are discussed in Volume 2 of Knuth's The Art of Computer Programming.
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