Re: bug in float on Pentium

Matt Billenstein
2001-04-15T06:01:54Z

It's not that you found a new bug or that floats are inaccurate (they are
just less exact than doubles)... For example, if you make your program
print some more digits, you'll get:

5483.98999999999978172127157449722290039062500000000000
5483.99023437500000000000000000000000000000000000000000

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {

unsigned int *X;
unsigned int *Y;

double x = 5483.99;
float y = 5483.99;

X = (unsigned int *)&x;
Y = (unsigned int *)&y;

printf ("%60.50lf\n%60.50f\n", x, y);

printf("%lf %x%x %f %x\n", x, X[1], X[0], y, *Y);
return 0;
}

which you can verify by hand:

5483.990000 40b56bfd70a3d70a
0 10000001011 1.0101 0110 1011 1111 1101 0111 0000 1010 0011 1101 0111 0000
1010
+ 2^12 * 1.3388647460937499467092948179925 =
5483.989999999999781721271574497222900390625

5483.990234 45ab5fec
0 10001011 1.010 1011 0101 1111 1110 1100
+ 2^12 * 1.338864803314208984375 = 5489.990234375

check out:
http://www.psc.edu/general/software/packages/ieee/ieee.html

l8r

m

Matt Billenstein
mbillens (at) one (dot) net
http://w3.one.net/~mbillens/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joe" <joeja@mindspring.com>
To: <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 7:23 PM
Subject: bug in float on Pentium

| Not sure but I think I found a NEW bug.
|
| I know that there have been some issues with pentiums and floating point
| arrithmatic, but this takes the cake...
|
| Linux Lserver.org 2.2.18 #43 SMP Fri Mar 9 14:19:41 EST 2001 i586
| unknown
|
| >kgcc --version
| egcs-2.91.66
|
| RH 6.2.x / 7.0
|
| try this program
|
| #include <stdio.h>
|
| int main() {
|
| char tmpx[100];
| char tmpy[100];
|
| double x = 5483.99;
| float y = 5483.99;
|
| sprintf (tmpx, "%f",x );
| sprintf (tmpy, "%f",y );
|
| printf ("%s\n%s\n", tmpx, tmpy);
| return 0;
| }
|
|
| I am getting the following as output
|
| joeja@Lserver$ ./testf
| 5483.990000
| 5483.990234
|
|
| what is with the .990234?? it should be .990000
|
| any ideas on this??
|
| --
| Joe Acosta ........
| home: joeja@mindspring.com
|
|
|
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