7/12/23, 1:47 AM Symmetric level-index arithmetic - Wikipedia

Symmetric level-index arithmetic

The level-index (LI) representation of numbers, and its algorithms for arithmetic operations, were
introduced by Charles Clenshaw and Frank Olver in 1984.[1]

The symmetric form of the LI system and its arithmetic operations were presented by Clenshaw and
Peter Turner in 1987.[2]

Michael Anuta, Daniel Lozier, Nicolas Schabanel and Turner developed the algorithm for symmetric
level-index (SLI) arithmetic, and a parallel implementation of it. There has been extensive work on
developing the SLI arithmetic algorithms and extending them to complex and vector arithmetic
operations.

Definition
The idea of the level-index system is to represent a non-negative real number X as

where and the process of exponentiation is performed ℓ times, with . ℓ and f are the
level and index of X respectively. x = ℓ + f is the LI image of X. For example,

so its LI image is

The symmetric form is used to allow negative exponents, if the magnitude of X is less than 1. One
takes sgn(log(X)) or sgn(|X| − |X|−1) and stores it (after substituting +1 for 0 for the reciprocal sign
since for X = 1 = e0 the LI image is x = 1.0 and uniquely defines X=1 and we can do away without a
third state and use only one bit for the two states −1 and +1) as the reciprocal sign rX. Mathematically,
this is equivalent to taking the reciprocal (multiplicative inverse) of a small magnitude number, and
then finding the SLI image for the reciprocal. Using one bit for the reciprocal sign enables the
representation of extremely small numbers.

A sign bit may also be used to allow negative numbers. One takes sgn(X) and stores it (after
substituting +1 for 0 for the sign since for X = 0 the LI image is x = 0.0 and uniquely defines X = 0
and we can do away without a third state and use only one bit for the two states −1 and +1) as the sign
sX. Mathematically, this is equivalent to taking the inverse (additive inverse) of a negative number,
and then finding the SLI image for the inverse. Using one bit for the sign enables the representation of
negative numbers.

The mapping function is called the generalized logarithm function. It is defined as

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and it maps onto itself monotonically and so it is invertible on this interval. The inverse, the
generalized exponential function, is defined by

The density of values X represented by x has no discontinuities as we go from level ℓ to ℓ + 1 (a very

desirable property) since:

The generalized logarithm function is closely related to the iterated logarithm used in computer
science analysis of algorithms.

Formally, we can define the SLI representation for an arbitrary real X (not 0 or 1) as

where sX is the sign (additive inversion or not) of X and rX is the reciprocal sign (multiplicative
inversion or not) as in the following equations:

whereas for X = 0 or 1, we have:

For example,

and its SLI representation is

See also
Tetration
Floating point (FP)
Tapered floating point (TFP)
Logarithmic number system (LNS)

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Level (logarithmic quantity)

References
1. Clenshaw, Charles William; Olver, Frank William John (1984). "Beyond floating point". Journal of
the ACM. 31 (2): 319–328. doi:10.1145/62.322429 (https://doi.org/10.1145%2F62.322429).
2. Clenshaw, Charles William; Turner, Peter R. (1988-10-01) [1986-09-16, 1987-06-04]. "The
Symmetric Level-Index System" (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31393487_The_Symm
etric_Level-Index_System). IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis. Oxford University Press, Institute
of Mathematics and Its Applications. 8 (4): 517–526. doi:10.1093/imanum/8.4.517 (https://doi.org/
10.1093%2Fimanum%2F8.4.517). ISSN 0272-4979 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0272-4979).
OCLC 42026743 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/42026743). Retrieved 2018-07-10.

Further reading
Clenshaw, Charles William; Olver, Frank William John; Turner, Peter R. (1989). "Level-index
arithmetic: An introductory survey". Numerical Analysis and Parallel Processing (Conference
proceedings / The Lancaster Numerical Analysis Summer School 1987). Lecture Notes in
Mathematics (LNM). 1397: 95–168. doi:10.1007/BFb0085718 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBFb008
5718).
Clenshaw, Charles William; Turner, Peter R. (1989-06-23) [1988-10-04]. "Root Squaring Using
Level-Index Arithmetic". Computing. Springer-Verlag. 43 (2): 171–185. ISSN 0010-485X (https://w
ww.worldcat.org/issn/0010-485X).
Zehendner, Eberhard (Summer 2008). "Rechnerarithmetik: Logarithmische Zahlensysteme" (http
s://users.fmi.uni-jena.de/~nez/rechnerarithmetik_5/folien/Rechnerarithmetik.2008.09.handout.pdf)
(PDF) (Lecture script) (in German). Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. pp. 21–22. Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20180709202904/https://users.fmi.uni-jena.de/~nez/rechnerarithmetik_5/f
olien/Rechnerarithmetik.2008.09.handout.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2018-07-09. Retrieved
2018-07-09. [1] (https://web.archive.org/web/20180806175620/https://users.fmi.uni-jena.de/~nez/r
echnerarithmetik_5/folien/Rechnerarithmetik.2008.komplett.pdf)
Hayes, Brian (September–October 2009). "The Higher Arithmetic" (https://www.americanscientist.
org/article/the-higher-arithmetic). American Scientist. 97 (5): 364–368. doi:10.1511/2009.80.364 (h
ttps://doi.org/10.1511%2F2009.80.364). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180709194903/h
ttps://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-higher-arithmetic) from the original on 2018-07-09.
Retrieved 2018-07-09. [2] (https://www.americanscientist.org/sites/americanscientist.org/files/200
97301410207456-2009-09Hayes.pdf). Also reprinted in: Hayes, Brian (2017). "Chapter 8: Higher
Arithmetic". Foolproof, and Other Mathematical Meditations (https://books.google.com/books?id=
E4c3DwAAQBAJ) (1 ed.). The MIT Press. pp. 113–126. ISBN 978-0-26203686-3. ISBN 0-
26203686-X.

External links
sli-c-library (hosted by Google Code), "C++ Implementation of Symmetric Level-Index Arithmetic"
(https://code.google.com/p/sli-c-library/).

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