Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2025 11:52:04 +1000
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From: dxf <dxforth@gmail.com>
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On 22/07/2025 6:28 am, Paul Rubin wrote:
> dxf <dxforth@gmail.com> writes:
>> AFAICS IEEE 754 offers nothing particularly useful for the end-user.
>> Either one's fp application works - or it doesn't.  IEEE hasn't
>> changed that.
> 
> The purpose of IEEE FP was to improve the numerical accuracy of
> applications that used it as opposed to other formats.
> 
>> IEEE's relevance is that it spurred Intel into making an FPU which in
>> turn made implementing fp easy.
> 
> Exactly the opposite, Intel decided that it wanted to make an FPU and it
> wanted the FPU to have the best FP arithmetic possible.  So it
> commissioned Kahan (a renowned FP expert) to design the FP format.
> Kahan said "Why not use the VAX format?  It is pretty good".  Intel said
> it didn't want pretty good, it wanted the best, so Kahan said "ok" and
> designed the 8087 format.
> 
> The IEEE standardization process happened AFTER the 8087 was already in
> progress.  Other manufacturers signed onto it, some of them overcoming
> initial resistance, after becoming convinced that it was the right
> thing.
> 
> http://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~wkahan/ieee754status/754story.html

There's nothing intrinsically "best" in IEEE's format.  Best product
on the market is what Intel wanted.  It had been selling AMD's 9511
single-precision FPU under licence.  As Kahan says, wind of what Intel
was doing got out and industry's response was to create a standard
that even Intel couldn't ignore.