Name

HPL_dlamch determines machine-specific arithmetic constants.

Synopsis

#include "hpl.h"

double HPL_dlamch( const HPL_T_MACH CMACH );

Description

HPL_dlamch determines machine-specific arithmetic constants such as the relative machine precision (eps), the safe minimum (sfmin) such that 1 / sfmin does not overflow, the base of the machine (base), the precision (prec), the number of (base) digits in the mantissa (t), whether rounding occurs in addition (rnd=1.0 and 0.0 otherwise), the minimum exponent before (gradual) underflow (emin), the underflow threshold (rmin) base**(emin-1), the largest exponent before overflow (emax), the overflow threshold (rmax) (base**emax)*(1-eps).

Arguments

CMACH   (local input)                 const HPL_T_MACH
        Specifies the value to be returned by HPL_dlamch             
           = HPL_MACH_EPS,   HPL_dlamch := eps (default)             
           = HPL_MACH_SFMIN, HPL_dlamch := sfmin                     
           = HPL_MACH_BASE,  HPL_dlamch := base                      
           = HPL_MACH_PREC,  HPL_dlamch := eps*base                  
           = HPL_MACH_MLEN,  HPL_dlamch := t                         
           = HPL_MACH_RND,   HPL_dlamch := rnd                       
           = HPL_MACH_EMIN,  HPL_dlamch := emin                      
           = HPL_MACH_RMIN,  HPL_dlamch := rmin                      
           = HPL_MACH_EMAX,  HPL_dlamch := emax                      
           = HPL_MACH_RMAX,  HPL_dlamch := rmax                      
         
        where                                                        
         
           eps   = relative machine precision,                       
           sfmin = safe minimum,                                     
           base  = base of the machine,                              
           prec  = eps*base,                                         
           t     = number of digits in the mantissa,                 
           rnd   = 1.0 if rounding occurs in addition,               
           emin  = minimum exponent before underflow,                
           rmin  = underflow threshold,                              
           emax  = largest exponent before overflow,                 
           rmax  = overflow threshold.

Example

#include "hpl.h"

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
   double eps;
   eps = HPL_dlamch( HPL_MACH_EPS );
   printf("eps=%18.8e\n", eps);
   exit(0); return(0);
}

References

This function has been manually translated from the Fortran 77 LAPACK auxiliary function dlamch.f (version 2.0 -- 1992), that was itself based on the function ENVRON by Malcolm and incorporated suggestions by Gentleman and Marovich. See Malcolm M. A., Algorithms to reveal properties of floating-point arithmetic., Comms. of the ACM, 15, 949-951 (1972). Gentleman W. M. and Marovich S. B., More on algorithms that reveal properties of floating point arithmetic units., Comms. of the ACM, 17, 276-277 (1974).