Re: Sine and Cosine Accuracy on AMD64 and Pentium 4

Scott Robert Ladd wrote:
> Let's consider the accuracy of sine and cosine. I've run tests as
> follows, using a program provided at the end of this message.


(snip)


> for (x = -range; x <= range; x += incr)
> {
> double s1 = sin(x);
> double c1 = cos(x);
> double one = s1 * s1 + c1 * c1;
> double diff = one - 1.0;
> final *= one;
>
> double accuracy1 = binary_accuracy(diff);


(snip)


I find this a very strange test for the accuracy of sin() and cos().
I suppose any that fail it are obviously bad, but a good result
doesn't give me much confidence in the functions.


A sin() that always returns 1 and cos() that always returns zero will
get a perfect score. As you are getting results better than the 53
bits for a double seems especially suspect.


-- glen

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