[PD-dev] denormals: svf, freeverb (was Re: [PD] bug in freeverb???)

[Martin Peach]

I wonder if this line, right after you check "in" for denormality, might 
not be causing trouble:
                 // very slight waveshape for extra stability
                 sv->b = sv->b - sv->b * sv->b * sv->b * 0.001f;
Since cubing a tiny number and multiplying it by .001 could end up 
creating a denormal, which isn't checked for until it's gone through a 
series of further computations and ends up as the new "in".

Also (I don't really know), I thought that denormals were caught as a 
processor exception whenever they occurred, so neutralizing them in the 
code after the fact won't do anything to speed up the process, except to 
prevent a cascade of denormals. The thing to do would be to replace the 
exception handler with your own.

A bunch of interesting stuff here:
http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/x87-and-sse-floating-point-assists-in-ia-32-flush-to-zero-ftz-and-denormals-are-zero-daz/
....where the conclusion reads:

"To avoid serialization and performance issues due to denormals and 
underflow numbers, use the SSE and SSE2 instructions to set 
Flush-to-Zero and Denormals-Are-Zero modes within the hardware to enable 
highest performance for floating-point applications."


Martin


Ed Kelly wrote:
> Hi Damon,
> 
> I have tried to implement this technique, to fix the svf~ and I am still getting denormal errors pegging the CPU. Is there anything I have missed do you think? After reading a little bit about unions and uint32_t I think I've used them correctly...
> 
> If this bug can be zapped for good then I'd like to eliminate denormal errors from the svn for good!
> 
> Best,
> Ed
> 
> --- On Fri, 14/8/09, Damon Chaplin <damon at karuna.eclipse.co..uk> wrote:
> 
>> From: Damon Chaplin <damon at karuna.eclipse.co.uk>
>> Subject: Re: [PD-dev] denormals: svf, freeverb (was Re: [PD] bug in freeverb???)
>> To: "Ed Kelly" <morph_2016 at yahoo.co.uk>
>> Cc: "PD List" <pd-list at iem.at>, "pddev" <pd-dev at iem.at>
>> Date: Friday, 14 August, 2009, 1:51 PM
>>
>> On Fri, 2009-08-14 at 13:06 +0100, Damon Chaplin wrote:
>>> On Fri, 2009-08-14 at 13:03 +0100, Damon Chaplin
>> wrote:
>>>>    if (u.int_value &
>> 0x7f800000)
>>>>       fv = 0.0f;
>>> Oops. That should be:
>>>
>>>   if (u.int_value & 0x7f800000 == 0)
>>>       fv = 0.0f;
>> Or even better:
>>
>>  if ((u.int_value & 0x7f800000) == 0)
>>     fv = 0.0f;
>>
>> Damon
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
>       
> 
> 
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