{"title":"A comment on the Eispack machine epsilon routine","authors":"T. Hopkins, J. Slater","doi":"10.1145/165639.165641","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"We analyze the algorithm used to generate the value for the machine epsilon in the Eispack suite of routines and show that it can fail on a binary floating-point system. The comments in the code describing the conditions under which this method will work are not restrictive enough and we provide a replacement set of assumptions. We conclude by suggesting how the algorithm may be modified to overcome most of the shortcomings.","PeriodicalId":177516,"journal":{"name":"ACM Signum Newsletter","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"1993-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"6","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"ACM Signum Newsletter","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1145/165639.165641","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 6
Abstract
We analyze the algorithm used to generate the value for the machine epsilon in the Eispack suite of routines and show that it can fail on a binary floating-point system. The comments in the code describing the conditions under which this method will work are not restrictive enough and we provide a replacement set of assumptions. We conclude by suggesting how the algorithm may be modified to overcome most of the shortcomings.