Programming Objectives of Floating-point Applications

In general, the programming objectives of the floating-point applications fall into the following categories:

Based on the goal of an application, you will need to balance the tradeoffs among these objectives. For example, if you are developing a 3D graphics engine, then performance can be the most important factor to consider, and reproducibility and accuracy can be your secondary concerns.

Intel® Compiler provides appropriate compiler options, such as the -fp-model (Linux* and Mac OS* X) or /fp (Windows*) option, which allows you to tune your applications based on specific objectives. The compiler process the code differently when you specify different compiler options.

     

In most case, an application will be much more complicated. You should select appropriate compiler options by carefully consider your programming objectives and balance the tradeoffs among these objectives.