"wobble" in Floating Point

[Jim McGuire]

In article <13576 at dog.ee.lbl.gov> torek at elf.ee.lbl.gov (Chris Torek) writes:
>In article <9105180923.aa03879 at art-sy.detroit.mi.us>
>chap at art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) writes:
>>Of course, the AT&T folks just traded off wobble for storage size and
>>dynamic range. ... Now if they put all of that thought into the DESIGN,
>>why couldn't they have put some of it into the COMMENTS ??
>
>The comp_t stuff appears in 32V Unix (the original VAX port, swapping-
>only) and hence must date back to pre-V7 times.  (32V apparently split
>off just slightly before the V7 release.)

>The comment in 32V reads:
>        /* "floating pt": 3 bits base 8 exp, 13 bits fraction */

Well, I'm pretty certain it was in the V5 & V6 kernels, as well.
In fact, I don't remember ever seeing a kernel that didn't have
the acct stuff, and I started working with the kernel stuff in
Holmdel in '74.  No doubt someone can correct me if my
memory has dropped too many bits....

Of course, soon as I saw the "floating pt" comment, I didn't
bother to study it any further!  I mean, what does a kernel
need with floating point? :)

-- 
Jim McGuire, Solbourne Computer			Speaking for
mcguire at solbourne.com				myself only!