Re: Binary degrees?

From: Randy Poe (poespam-trap_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 09/01/04 

Date: 31 Aug 2004 21:15:36 -0700

"Ruud Lustig" <rlustig@casema.nl> wrote in message news:<6Yydncm6LNXR36_cRVnyuw@casema.nl>...
> I have a question which keeps me busy for some time. Well, for math experts
> like you my question is just a piece of cake.
>
> As we all know, we use Radians, Degrees and Grad to express the size of
> angles.
> In computers we use hexadecimal bytes which does not 'fit' these units at
> all..
>
> Now my question; wouldn't it be easier to use in computers a sort of Binary
> Degree (BDeg) in which, let's say 2*pi = 255 or X'FF BDeg.
> Would this make sin, cos etc. calculations easier using tablesearches,
> Taylor expansions or whatever?

I have to disagree with the other responses. I've used exactly
this sort of scheme in real-time signal processing applications
that used integer arithmetic for speed.

> I am specially interested in this in 8-bit microcontroller applications. I
> have the feeling that this would make things easier. But does it really?

Depends on how expensive floating point operations are, and
how often they have to be done.

Designing just-precise-enough integer arithmetic involves a
large investment in programming time, but can give you huge
time savings if that is an issues. When I was doing this work,
it was. I remember poring over code trying to shave a couple
of microseconds off assembly-language loops.

          - Randy

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Just venting (totally OT)
    ... Lots of scooters have some sort of ... it's fearsomely difficult to control a bike going slowly. ... different - most bikes use a clutch that runs in the engine oil, ... having four computers to do the job of one. ...
    (uk.people.support.depression)
  • Re: efficient compare
    ... If you are trying to minimize traffic between the computers, then presumably the cost of any sorts or index creation on the computers matters less. ... one would still have to weigh the expected savings against the costs. ... For example, in the case of some sort of replication scheme, presumably the databases were reconciled at some earlier time. ... One can also presume that the volume of updates is low relative to the total size of the database. ...
    (comp.databases.theory)
  • Re: OT - an announcement
    ... flirting he mentioned that "computers are evil". ... He's sweet all right, but I'm not sure I can trust anyone so alien ... mean first invest in either pepper spray or a cattle prod. ... If you're that sort of kinky enough. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.tv)
  • Re: Using a macro on shared workbook excel 2003
    ... sort my complete range. ... That Conditional formatting stays with the cell. ... > I have 2 computers sharing a workbook. ... > There is a macro in it that sorts column A by date. ...
    (microsoft.public.excel.misc)
  • Re: OT Windows Vista Question
    ... Ozgirl wrote in message... ... I think it's a piece of cake in many areas, and being a klutz with ... computers, I am shocked. ...
    (alt.support.diabetes)