[ale] flops?

[Jim Popovitch]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Turner [mailto:artic_knight at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 10:12 PM
>
> floating point operations? exactly what is that?
>

integers are numeric variables capable of holding whole numbers.

floats are numeric variables capable of holding floating point numbers,
otherwise known as fractional numbers.

floating point operations (flops) are mathematical operations (addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division, etc) using floats instead of
integers. These operations require a floating point co-processor (physically
or emulated).

Back in the days of the 286, 386, and 486 processors if you wanted to do
intense mathematical calculations (spreadsheets, CAD, etc) you needed a
floating point co-processor (I.e. 287, 387, 487 chip).  Without a
co-processor your computer used software emulation to handle floating point
operations.  Newer Intel chips, from the Pentium and forward, have a built
in fpu (floating point unit) that handles floating point operations
internally rather than utilizing software emulation or an external
co-processor.

hth,

-Jim P.



---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.