[Pixman] [PATCH] float-combiner.c: Change tests for x == 0.0 tests to - FLT_MIN < x < FLT_MIN

[Siarhei Siamashka]

On Sat, 15 Dec 2012 10:50:01 -0500
Søren Sandmann <sandmann at cs.au.dk> wrote:

> From: Søren Sandmann Pedersen <ssp at redhat.com>
> 
> pixman-float-combiner.c currently uses checks like these:
> 
>     if (x == 0.0f)
>         ...
>     else
>         ... / x;
> 
> to prevent division by 0. In theory this is correct: a division-by-zero
> exception is only supposed to happen when the floating point numerator is
> exactly equal to a positive or negative zero.
> 
> However, in practice, the combination of x87 and gcc optimizations
> causes issues. The x87 registers are 80 bits wide, which means the
> initial test:
> 
> 	if (x == 0.0f)
> 
> may be false when x is an 80 bit floating point number, but when x is
> rounded to a 32 bit single precision number, it becomes equal to
> 0.0. In principle, gcc should compensate for this quirk of x87, and
> there are some options such as -ffloat-store, -fexcess-precision=standard,
> and -std=c99 that will make it do so, but these all have a performance
> cost.  It is also possible to set the FPU to a mode that makes it do
> all computation with single or double precision, but that would
> require pixman to save the existing mode before doing anything with
> floating point and restore it afterwards.
> 
> Instead, this patch side-steps the issue by replacing exact checks for
> equality with zero with a new macro that checkes whether the value is
> between -FLT_MIN and FLT_MIN.

I just wonder how big is the performance cost for adding an extra
comparison operation. Probably much less than using -ffloat-store,
-fexcess-precision=standard, and -std=c99 options, but might be
interesting to confirm.

-- 
Best regards,
Siarhei Siamashka