Implementation of the exponential function in a floating- point unit

In this work we present an implementation of the exponential function in double precision, in a unit that supports IEEE floating-point arithmetic. As existing proposals, the implementation is based on the use of a floating-point multiplier and additional hardware. We decompose the computation into t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Vázquez Álvarez, Álvaro, Antelo Suárez, Elisardo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2003
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC)
Repositorio:Minerva. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:minerva.usc.gal:10347/46065
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46065
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Exponential function
Transcendental functions
Floating–point unit
Computer arithmetic
330406 Arquitectura de ordenadores
Descripción
Sumario:In this work we present an implementation of the exponential function in double precision, in a unit that supports IEEE floating-point arithmetic. As existing proposals, the implementation is based on the use of a floating-point multiplier and additional hardware. We decompose the computation into three subexponentials. The first and third subexponentials are computed in a conventional way (table look-up and polynomial approximation). The second subexponential is computed based on a transformation of the slow radix-2 digit-recurrence algorithm into a fast computation by using the multiplier and additional hardware. We present a design process that permits the selection of the most convenient trade-off between hardware complexity and latency. We discuss the algorithm, the implementation, and perform a rough comparison with three proposed designs. Our estimations indicate that the implementation proposed in this work presents better trade-off between hardware complexity and latency than the compared designs