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Re: Motion 31 - incorporating Complete Formats into the standard



> Subject: Re: Motion 31 - incorporating Complete Formats into the standard
> From: John Pryce <j.d.pryce@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:13:33 +0000
> To: stds-1788 <stds-1788@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> P1788
> 
> Before re-submitting the Level 1 text I need some answers relating to motion 9...
> 
> . . .
> >> 
> >> Regarding "exact" vs "accurate" or "faithful" dot product,
> 
> The position paper I have is "The Exact Dot Product as Basic Tool for Long
> Interval Arithmetic" by Ulrich Kulisch and Van Snyder (UKVS for short),
> which seems to be written very much as a spec, since it contains "An
> implementation shall ..." sentences.
> 
> > I think that P1788 should not do the job of 754...
> 
> . . .
> 

	Let me comment on just these two issues before you.

	In principle, I agree with whoever said 1788 should
	not do 754 things again.  And, indeed, you will find
	the dot products & related reductions as optional in
	clause 9.4 of 754-2008.

	Alas, we could not agree on making them mandatory &
	we could not agree on an accuracy policy.

	So if 1788 made them both mandatory & exact (as Ulrich
	wishes) it would not be repeating anything from 754.

	My second comment is really a question.  I am familiar
	with the uses of Ulrich's dot product in the context
	of linear floating-point problems.  But I am not
	familiar with how they are used in the interval world.

	Are they used in the same way as in floating-point by
	using a mid-rad form to compute interval results by
	means of an accurate vector or matrix midpoint together
	with a Jacobian for the radii?

	Or does one just do a dot product in the inf elements
	& another on the sup elements to get a narrower dot
	product on a vector of intervals in some context that
	may be entirely unrelated to linear problems?

	I ask partly for my own sake & partly because the
	answer might drive your own efforts.


				Dan