© 1988 by British Computer Society
Test Procedures for Measurement of Floating-Point Characteristics of Computing Environments

1 Department of Electronic Engineering, The University of Birmingham, PO Box 363, Birmingham B15 2TT, 2 University of Liverpool, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX
A number of test procedures are presented for measuring the floating-point characteristics of a processor in a given computing environment. By using these procedures, accurate values can be assigned to the number representation and precision-dependent parameters such as the normalisation base, number of digits in the mantissa, nominal decimal precision, minimum representable number and so on. The procedures also determine the statistical properties of literal and input conversions and the basic arithmetic operations on the processor. Typical experimental results for the DEC, IBM, CDC and ICL computers are presented and discussed
Received December 1986. revised April 1987.
* Department of Electronic Engineering, The University of Birmingham, PO Box 363, Birmingham B15 2TT
University of Liverpool, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX