Mill Computing, Inc. › Forums › The Mill › Architecture › Will Decimal Floating Point be implemented in hardware?

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  • Validark
    Participant
    May 7, 2023 at 3:44 am
    Post count: 21
    #3880 |

    Will Decimal Floating Point be implemented in hardware? I would be surprised to hear it is widely used. I think I only heard of it because of the Mill, although that doesn’t mean that much. It isn’t even supported in LLVM so far as I know? If it is meant to be implemented in hardware and it isn’t widely used, is it there because you believe it should be used more?

  • Ivan Godard
    Keymaster
    May 7, 2023 at 9:36 pm
    Post count: 689
    #3883

    DFP is defined in the ISA, so it could be done in hardware. But only if the market demanded it.

  • Thomas D
    Participant
    June 7, 2023 at 7:07 pm
    Post count: 24
    #3912

    Waiting to see how it plays out with Cowlishaw and IBM?

    • Ivan Godard
      Keymaster
      June 14, 2023 at 5:09 am
      Post count: 689
      #3915

      DFP is obviously of value for COBOL-type commercial programs. Engineers tend to think of designs as being for the kinds of things that engineers do – CAD, compiles, scientific, games – and forget how much work is done doing payroll and booking reservations. Those won’t be the first Mill markets, but we have defined DFP into the ISA for possible future products. Whether it’s hardware is a config choice, to be made then.

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