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Mathematics of Computation
Journal of the American Mathematical Society
ISSN 1088-6842(e) ISSN 0025-5718(p)
     

Sharp ULP rounding error bound for the hypotenuse function

Author(s): Abraham Ziv.
Journal: Math. Comp. 68 (1999), 1143-1148.
MSC (1991): Primary 65G05; Secondary 65D20
Posted: February 13, 1999
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Abstract: The hypotenuse function, $z=\sqrt{x^2+y^2}$, is sometimes included in math library packages. Assuming that it is being computed by a straightforward algorithm, in a binary floating point environment, with round to nearest rounding mode, a sharp roundoff error bound is derived, for arbitrary precision. For IEEE single precision, or higher, the bound implies that $|\overline z-z|<1.222\, ulp(z)$ and $|\overline z-z|<1.222\, ulp(\overline z)$. Numerical experiments indicate that this bound is sharp and cannot be improved.


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Nicholas J. Higham, Accuracy and stability of numerical algorithms, SIAM, Philadelphia, PA, 1996. MR 97a:65047

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IEEE standard for binary floating point arithmetic. An American national standard, ANSI/IEEE Std 754-1985.

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Pat H. Sterbenz, Floating-point computation, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1974. MR 50:1556

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J. H. Wilkinson, Rounding errors in algebraic processes, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1963. MR 28:4661

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Abraham Ziv, Converting approximate error bounds into exact ones, Math. Comp. 64 (1995), 265-277. MR 95c:65074


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Additional Information:

Abraham Ziv
Affiliation: IBM Israel, Science and Technology, Matam--Advanced Technology Center, Haifa 31905, Israel
Email: ziv@haifasc3.vnet.ibm.com

DOI: 10.1090/S0025-5718-99-01103-5
PII: S 0025-5718(99)01103-5
Keywords: Rounding error, error analysis, relative error, error bound, floating point, ULP, hypotenuse function, math library
Received by editor(s): December 1, 1997
Posted: February 13, 1999
Copyright of article: Copyright 1999, American Mathematical Society


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