Symmetric level-index arithmetic

Summary

The level-index (LI) representation of numbers, and its algorithms for arithmetic operations, were introduced by Charles Clenshaw and Frank Olver in 1984.[1]

The symmetric form of the LI system and its arithmetic operations were presented by Clenshaw and Peter Turner in 1987.[2]

Michael Anuta, Daniel Lozier, Nicolas Schabanel and Turner developed the algorithm for symmetric level-index (SLI) arithmetic, and a parallel implementation of it. There has been extensive work on developing the SLI arithmetic algorithms and extending them to complex and vector arithmetic operations.

Definition

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The idea of the level-index system is to represent a non-negative real number X as

 

where   and the process of exponentiation is performed times, with  . and f are the level and index of X respectively. x = + f is the LI image of X. For example,

 

so its LI image is

 

The symmetric form is used to allow negative exponents, if the magnitude of X is less than 1. One takes sgn(log(X)) or sgn(|X| − |X|−1) and stores it (after substituting +1 for 0 for the reciprocal sign since for X = 1 = e0 the LI image is x = 1.0 and uniquely defines X=1 and we can do away without a third state and use only one bit for the two states −1 and +1[clarification needed]) as the reciprocal sign rX. Mathematically, this is equivalent to taking the reciprocal (multiplicative inverse) of a small magnitude number, and then finding the SLI image for the reciprocal. Using one bit for the reciprocal sign enables the representation of extremely small numbers.

A sign bit may also be used to allow negative numbers. One takes sgn(X) and stores it (after substituting +1 for 0 for the sign since for X = 0 the LI image is x = 0.0 and uniquely defines X = 0 and we can do away without a third state and use only one bit for the two states −1 and +1[clarification needed]) as the sign sX. Mathematically, this is equivalent to taking the inverse (additive inverse) of a negative number, and then finding the SLI image for the inverse. Using one bit for the sign enables the representation of negative numbers.

The mapping function is called the generalized logarithm function. It is defined as

 

and it maps   onto itself monotonically and so it is invertible on this interval. The inverse, the generalized exponential function, is defined by

 

The density of values X represented by x has no discontinuities as we go from level to  + 1 (a very desirable property) since:

 

The generalized logarithm function is closely related to the iterated logarithm used in computer science analysis of algorithms.

Formally, we can define the SLI representation for an arbitrary real X (not 0 or 1) as

 

where sX is the sign (additive inversion or not) of X and rX is the reciprocal sign (multiplicative inversion or not) as in the following equations:

 

whereas for X = 0 or 1, we have:

 
 

For example,

 

and its SLI representation is

 

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Clenshaw, Charles William; Olver, Frank William John (1984). "Beyond floating point". Journal of the ACM. 31 (2): 319–328. doi:10.1145/62.322429.
  2. ^ Clenshaw, Charles William; Turner, Peter R. (1988-10-01) [1986-09-16, 1987-06-04]. "The Symmetric Level-Index System". IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis. 8 (4). Oxford University Press, Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications: 517–526. doi:10.1093/imanum/8.4.517. ISSN 0272-4979. OCLC 42026743. Retrieved 2018-07-10.

Further reading

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  • Clenshaw, Charles William; Olver, Frank William John; Turner, Peter R. (1989). "Level-index arithmetic: An introductory survey". Numerical Analysis and Parallel Processing (Conference proceedings / The Lancaster Numerical Analysis Summer School 1987). Lecture Notes in Mathematics (LNM). 1397: 95–168. doi:10.1007/BFb0085718. ISBN 978-3-540-51645-3.
  • Clenshaw, Charles William; Turner, Peter R. (1989-06-23) [1988-10-04]. "Root Squaring Using Level-Index Arithmetic". Computing. 43 (2). Springer-Verlag: 171–185. doi:10.1007/BF02241860. ISSN 0010-485X.
  • Zehendner, Eberhard (Summer 2008). "Rechnerarithmetik: Logarithmische Zahlensysteme" (PDF) (Lecture script) (in German). Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. pp. 21–22. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-07-09. Retrieved 2018-07-09. [1]
  • Hayes, Brian (September–October 2009). "The Higher Arithmetic". American Scientist. 97 (5): 364–368. doi:10.1511/2009.80.364. Archived from the original on 2018-07-09. Retrieved 2018-07-09. [2]. Also reprinted in: Hayes, Brian (2017). "Chapter 8: Higher Arithmetic". Foolproof, and Other Mathematical Meditations (1 ed.). The MIT Press. pp. 113–126. ISBN 978-0-26203686-3. ISBN 0-26203686-X.
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  • sli-c-library (hosted by Google Code), "C++ Implementation of Symmetric Level-Index Arithmetic".