comment on

Now, your answer is what I was looking for!

This isn't about finding fault with the current Perl implementation, but about the possibility of improving the future of Perl5.

Were you able to view the referenced article? If not, I'll try to get a pdf of the article for you.

IBM added 54 DFP instructions and the XLC compiler uses them. I haven't looked at 'C' code in more than 20 years, but the idea of getting 34 digits of decimal accuracy when using Perl is down right 'sexy'. What was interesting in the wiki article was that the hardware was 76 times faster than the software for the demo. The wiki is from power6, and power7 was twice the speed of power6, and power8 is more than 3 times the performance of power7. But what is also interesting is that the software implementation is supported by Linux. So if some OpenPower hardware company developed a DFP plug-in, then Perl could have hardware Decimal Floating Point in the future on less expensive hardware. Developers could use the software versions for design/development/testing, and then production could use the hardware.

You gave me a lot to look into, so thanks for your work on this subject.

Regards...Ed

"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin

In reply to Re^2: Decimal Floating Point (DFP) and does Perl needs DFP? by flexvault
in thread Decimal Floating Point (DFP) and does Perl needs DFP? by flexvault

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