On Mar 23, 2006, at 8:19 AM, Andrew Haley wrote:
Perry Smith writes:
On Mar 22, 2006, at 3:05 PM, dups41@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On x86 the following code intended to calculate log2(4096) gives an
unexpected result of 11 when the value is cast directly to an
int. If
the result is stored in a double and then cast to an int the
expected
value (12) is given.
double r0;
double d_msb;
int i_msb;
r0=4096;
i_msb = (int)(log10(r0)/log10(2));
printf("%d\n",i_msb);
d_msb = (log10(r0)/log10(2));
i_msb = (int)d_msb;
printf("%d\n",i_msb);
# uname -srm
Linux 2.4.9-34smp i686
# g++ -o log log.c
# ./log
11
12
I have tried several versions of gcc on x86 and all give the same
behaviour. (3.0, 3.0.1, 3.0.4, 3.2, 3.2.2, 3.3.1)
On Solaris 8 this code gives the expected output (12 12). AMD64 with
-m64 gives the expected results but with -m32 the results differ (11
12).
Why do the two values differ? If it is the case that a
rounding/precision error is causing an off by one result, should it
not be consistent between the two forms of the code?
This seems odd to me too. I realize that floating point is not exact
but that inexactness should be the same in both methods of your
algorithms.
My suggestion is to dump out the listing of the code and look at it.
The instruction sequence must be different and that may clue you in
on why the results are different. I'm curious what you find.
This is because of excess precision in the x87.
This is http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=323.
I don't use Intel so forgive my ignorance. Is the call to _FPU_SETCW
mentioned in comment 60 (http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?
id=323#c60) going to affect how the x87 operates per process or for
the whole system? Thats obviously an OS specific question but
generally is that register saved in the process context? (It seems
like it would be.)
If it is, then how about adding the code in comment #60 to the
regular crt0.c code? If that avoids the problem. Anyone that is
really working with floating point will be more likely to set this
register up the way they want it if they want it a specific way.
