Implement the "unum" representation in D ?

[Shachar Shemesh via Digitalmars-d]

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