Implement the "unum" representation in D ?

[Iain Buclaw via Digitalmars-d]

On 12 Jul 2015 14:30, "Shachar Shemesh via Digitalmars-d" <
digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
>
> On 11/07/15 06:02, Nick B wrote:
>>
>> On Thursday, 20 February 2014 at 10:10:13 UTC, Nick B wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi everyone.
>>>
>>
>>> John Gustafson Will be presenting a Keynote on Thursday 27th February
>>> at 11:00 am
>>>
>>> The abstract is here:
>>> http://openparallel.com/multicore-world-2014/speakers/john-gustafson/
>>>
>>> There is also a excellent background paper, (PDF - 64 pages) which can
>>> be found here:
>>>
>>
>> FYI
>>
>> John Gustafson book is now out:
>>
>> It can be found here:
>>
>>
http://www.amazon.com/End-Error-Computing-Chapman-Computational/dp/1482239868/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436582956&sr=1-1&keywords=John+Gustafson&pebp=1436583212284&perid=093TDC82KFP9Y4S5PXPY
>>
>>
>
> As far as I can tell, the author is pushing toward a hardware based
implementation (i.e. - have the CPU do the implementation). All of his
arguments are around "transistors are cheap, bus lines are expensive" theme.
>
> A software based implementation will have much worse performance than an
FPU based floating point implementation, making these, even if generally
adopted (and I have my doubts), impractical.
>
> If the powers that be think this is showing enough of a potential, then
it might be a good idea to shape D so that it CAN use unums. That would
require quite a few architectural changes to the way people think (which is
a large part of why I think unums will not be generally adopted).
>
> Shachar

I reckon it will be a good to implement as proof of concept.  Speed would
likely be equivalent to soft vs. hard floats.  I'm more interested in what
existing hardware capabilities we can take advantage of now.
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