libwebsockets/READMEs/README.lws_fixed3232.md
Andy Green aadcd3c44a lws_fx: fixed point 3232 arithmetic
This introduces a fixed precision signed 32.32 fractional type that can
work on devices without an FPU.

The integer part works as an int32_t, the fractional part represents the
fractional proportion expressed as part of 100M, so 8 fractional decimal
digit precision which is more than enough for many applications.

Add and Sub are reasonably fast as they are scaled on to a combined
uint64_t, Multiply is a little slower as it takes four uint64_t multiplies
that are summed, and divide is expensive but accurate, done bitwise taking
up to 32 iterations involving uint64_t div and mod.
2022-03-15 10:28:09 +00:00

88 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown

# lws_fixed3232 Fixed point arithmetic
Lws provides reasonably fast fixed-point 32:32 arithmetic functions so code
can be designed to work without floating-point support.
The underlying type is
```
typedef struct lws_fixed3232 {
int32_t whole; /* signed 32-bit int */
int32_t frac; /* proportion from 0 to (100M - 1) */
} lws_fx_t;
```
Either or both of whole or frac may be negative, indicating that the
combined scalar is negative. This is to deal with numbers less than
0 but greater than -1 not being able to use whole to indicating
signedness, since it's zero. This scheme allows .whole to be used
as a signed `int32_t` naturally.
## Fractional representation
The fractional part counts parts per 100M and is restricted to the range
0 .. 99999999. For convenience a constant `LWS_FX_FRACTION_MSD` is
defined with the value 100M.
It's possible to declare constants naturally, but leading zeroes are not
valid on the fractional part, since C parses a leading 0 as indicating
the number is octal.
For the case of negative values less than 1, the fractional part bears the
sign.
Eg to declare 12.5, 6.0, -6.0, 0.1 and -0.1
```
static const lws_fx_t x[2] = { { 12,50000000 }, { 6,0 },
{ -6, 0 }, { 0, 10000000 }, { 0, -10000000 } };
```
There are some helpers
|Helper|Function|
|---|---|
|`lws_neg(a)`|nonzero if a is negative in whole or fractional part|
|`lws_fx_set(a,w,f)`|Convenience to set `lws_fx_t` a in code, notices if w is negative and also marks f the same|
## API style
The APIs are given the storage for the result along with the const args.
The result pointer is also returned from the operation to make operation
chaining more natural.
## Available operations
```
const lws_fx_t *
lws_fx_add(lws_fx_t *r, const lws_fx_t *a, const lws_fx_t *b);
const lws_fx_t *
lws_fx_sub(lws_fx_t *r, const lws_fx_t *a, const lws_fx_t *b);
const lws_fx_t *
lws_fx_mul(lws_fx_t *r, const lws_fx_t *a, const lws_fx_t *b);
const lws_fx_t *
lws_fx_div(lws_fx_t *r, const lws_fx_t *a, const lws_fx_t *b);
const lws_fx_t *
lws_fx_sqrt(lws_fx_t *r, const lws_fx_t *a);
int /* -1 if a < b, 1 if a > b, 0 if exactly equal */
lws_fx_comp(const lws_fx_t *a, const lws_fx_t *b);
int /* return whole, or whole + 1 if frac is nonzero */
lws_fx_roundup(const lws_fx_t *a);
int /* return whole */
lws_fx_rounddown(const lws_fx_t *a);
const char * /* format an lws_fx_t into a buffer */
lws_fx_string(const lws_fx_t *a, char *buf, size_t size
```
div and sqrt operations are iterative, up to 64 loops. Multiply is relatively cheap
since it devolves to four integer multiply-adds. Add and Sub are trivially cheap.