The influence of machine design on numerical algorithms

A great deal has been said and written recently about the poor arithmetic characteristics of computer designs, largely because anomalies long present in the floating point arithmetic of binary computers have suddenly been magnified in importance by the appearance of base 16 arithmetic. This paper is not intended as an attempt to influence present or future machine design--we will leave that project to those who think they can influence such designs. Rather, it is written in the spirit of H. R. J. Grosch when he advised programmers "to go back to work; quit trying to remodel the hardware ... accept reality...."