School of Computing

A comment on the eispack machine epsilon routine

Tim Hopkins and John Slater

Technical Report 18-94*, University of Kent, Computing Laboratory, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, September 1994.

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.

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Bibtex Record

@techreport{74,
author = {Tim Hopkins and John Slater},
title = {A Comment on the Eispack Machine Epsilon Routine},
month = {September},
year = {1994},
pages = {182-196},
keywords = {determinacy analysis, Craig interpolants},
note = {},
doi = {},
url = {http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/pubs/1994/74},
    address = {University of Kent, Canterbury, UK},
    hensa_abstractfilename = {pub/misc/ukc.reports/comp.sci/abstracts/18-94},
    hensa_ftpaddress = {unix.hensa.ac.uk},
    hensa_reportfilename = {pub/misc/ukc.reports/comp.sci/reports/18-94.ps.Z},
    institution = {University of Kent, Computing Laboratory},
    number = {18-94*},
}

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