Abstract
Arithmetical and relational operations in a machine must be designed in such a way that it enables us to make reliable, portable, efficient software. Therefore, operations must deliver either the correct result or an indication (trap, flag bit) that the operation has not been correctly performed. Incorrect results should be best possible, in order to increase software robustness.
Some consequences are: relational operations must always be correct; the result of integral arithmetical operations must be exact and that of real operations should be correctly rounded when the exact result is within certain (machine dependent) bounds; operations on single-precision operands yielding an exact (or correctly rounded) double-precision result should also be available.
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Dekker, T.J. (1977). Machine requirements for reliable, portable software. In: Cowell, W. (eds) Portability of Numerical Software. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 57. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-08446-0_33
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-08446-0_33
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