Abstract

At the present time, IEEE 64-bit floating-point arithmetic is sufficiently accurate for most sci-entific applications. However, for a rapidly growing body of important scientific computing ap-plications, a higher level of numeric precision is required. Such calculations are facilitated by high-precision software packages that include high-level language translation modules to min-imize the conversion effort. This paper presents a survey of recent applications of these tech-niques and provides some analysis of their numerical requirements. These applications include supernova simulations, climate modeling, planetary orbit calculations, Coulomb n-body atomic systems, scattering amplitudes of quarks, gluons and bosons, nonlinear oscillator theory, Ising theory, quantum field theory and experimental mathematics. We conclude that high-precision arithmetic facilities are now an indispensable component of a modern large-scale scientific com-puting environment.

Citations