[linux-audio-dev] XAP: a polemic

Mike Rawes mike_rawes at yahoo.co.uk
Fri Dec 20 04:19:00 UTC 2002


On Thu, 19 Dec 2002 20:17:04 +0000
Steve Harris <S.W.Harris at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 19, 2002 at 04:15:26 +0100, David Olofson wrote:
> > They actually make *more* sence as an audio format, since there, it 
> > can have a real effect on performance. That's only really relevant 
> > for old or low end hardware, though. (That's why Audiality does it -
> > 
> > but only in the real time synth. I'm simply not motivated enough to 
> > implement the off-line oscillators in fixed point... *heh*)
> 
> Right, but on current (PIV and AthlonXP) float is slightly faster, and
> significantly so on the next generation Intel chips.
> 

The only sound argument I have found for using integer fixed point over
float can be summed up in two words:

Denormal Number

Although deft coding can alleviate it somewhat, I can only hope that
with the Itanium, Opteron or whatever, this is no longer a problem!

- 
Mike
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