Talk:Floating-point unit

message: when was it invented and by whom?
:I do not know if he invented the mathematics of floating-point, but I believe the first implementation of floating-point was done by Konrad Zuse in the Z1 (computer).  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeff.science (talk • contribs) 15:01, 26 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Unsorted text

message: The current comment that AMD64 is an example of a CPU architecture that uses the FPU to implement SIMD is technically correct, but may give an impression that this is only recently done.
At the risk of being x86-centric, the example should any processors that implemented MMX or 3Dnow!, which dates back to the Pentium-MMX and K6. Calyth 06:51, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Examples of implementing SIMD using the FPU 

message: How about writing about how much the x86's floating point processor sucks in terms of accuracy?
141.225.144.225 (talk) 21:35, 24 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that the x87 uses 80-bit FPU registers to store 64-bit floating point values in extended precision. Anyways, it is IEEE compliant, so there is no reason to believe that it is "inaccurate". All FPUs are inaccurate to some extent, limited by the width of their registers. You were not referring to the Pentium FDIV bug were you? That only existed in the original Pentium and was due to a hardware bug, not the design. Anyways, such statements (that x87 sucks) is not suitable for Wikipedia (violates neutrality). Rilak (talk) 04:59, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  x86 Floating Point Processor 

message: The current article layout appears rather haphazard and concentrates on the x87 family, with very little discussion about earlier FPUs.  I believe a more reasonable approach would be something like:
# Floating point library (as per the current section)
# Floating point as an option - Covering early mainframes and minis where floating point was part of the instruction set but the hardware was an option  Typically, the OS would emulate any missing instructions.
# Floating point as a peripheral - Early microprocessors had no provision for floating point and AMD 9511, Intel I8231 and Weitek boards were treated as peripherals.
# Floating point co-processors - I8087, M68881 and NS32081
# Integrated Floating point
This is a roughly historical perspective.  From a hardware perspective, 2, 3 & 4 are similar, whilst from a software perspective, 2, 4 & 5 are similar.  There was some overlap between 3 & 4 - the M68881 and NS32081 could be used as peripherals on earlier CPUs that did not support the co-processor interface or other vendor's CPUs.
--PeterJeremy (talk) 22:20, 19 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  More Logical Article Layout 

message: Large portions of the articles have no citations at all. Not sure where the info came from. Wqwt (talk) 00:46, 10 March 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Citations Needed 

message: CORDIC is commonly used for transcendental functions on hand (and previously desk) calculators.  Traditionally, they do digit serial BCD arithmetic. Though the usual explanation for CORDIC is binary, there is a decimal version. Computers using hardware floating point, with multiply, commonly use polynomial expansions. Gah4 (talk) 06:57, 18 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  CORDIC