Patent ID: 8150902

Claim:
A device: comprising a plurality of low precision high dynamic range (LPHDR) execution units adapted to execute, in parallel, a first plurality of operations on a first plurality of input signals representing a first plurality of numerical values to produce a first plurality of output signals representing a second plurality of numerical values, wherein, for each of the plurality of LPHDR execution units, for at least one operation that the LPHDR execution unit is adapted to execute, the dynamic range of the possible valid inputs to the at least one operation is at least as wide as from 1/65,000 through 65,000 and for at least 5% of the possible valid inputs to that operation, for at least one output signal produced by that operation, the statistical mean, over repeated execution on the same inputs from the at least 5% of the possible valid inputs to that operation, of the numerical values represented by the at least one output signal of the LPHDR unit executing that operation on those inputs differs by at least 0.05% from the result of an exact mathematical calculation of the operation on the numerical values of those same inputs; and consisting of at least one high-precision execution unit adapted to execute at least one second operation on at least one second input signal representing at least one third numerical value to produce at least one second output signal representing at least one fourth numerical value, wherein the at least one high-precision execution unit is adapted to execute at least one arithmetic operation on floating point numbers that are 32 or more bits wide; wherein the number of LPHDR execution units in the device exceeds, by at least 20 more than three times, the number of the at least one high-precision execution unit.