Richardson, Texas-based high-performance maths co-processor designer Cyrix Corp says it will offer free of charge, the IEEE 754-1990 standard test suite for binary computer arithmetic conformance: developed at the University of California at Berkeley, the test evaluates performance in all data formats supported by 80386-based personal computers, and determines whether or not maths co-processors produce results that conform to the IEEE standard for 80-bit arithmetic – it seems the company hopes that other developers of maths co-processors will find it so hard to conform to the standards that they will give up their efforts in despair; it points out that among the problems that can arise with chips that don’t meet the spec are mathematically incorrect results; dirty arithmetic leading to mathematically incorrect results; design features hindering the assembly code programmer; and lack of faithfulness to the IEEE arithmetic standard; one copy per customer, please.
