From alireza.s.mahani at gmail.com  Tue Jul 19 06:07:04 2011
From: alireza.s.mahani at gmail.com (Alireza Mahani)
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:07:04 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [Rd] Manipulating single-precision (float) arrays in .Call
	functions
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References: <1311004330702-3675684.post@n4.nabble.com>
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Message-ID: <1311048424023-3677232.post@n4.nabble.com>

Simon,

Thank you for elaborating on the limitations of R in handling float types. I
think I'm pretty much there with you.

As for the insufficiency of single-precision math (and hence limitations of
GPU), my personal take so far has been that double-precision becomes crucial
when some sort of error accumulation occurs. For example, in differential
equations where boundary values are integrated to arrive at interior values,
etc. On the other hand, in my personal line of work (Hierarchical Bayesian
models for quantitative marketing), we have so much inherent uncertainty and
noise at so many levels in the problem (and no significant error
accumulation sources) that single vs double precision issue is often
inconsequential for us. So I think it really depends on the field as well as
the nature of the problem.

Regards,
Alireza


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[Rd] Manipulating single-precision (float) arrays in .Call functions
Alireza Mahani