Proposal: Add "fma" to the RealFloat class

Tue May 5 13:36:35 UTC 2015

Hi,

Is this useful?

BLAS (Basic Linear Algebra Subprograms)
http://www.netlib.org/blas/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Linear_Algebra_Subprograms

Regards,
Takenobu

2015-05-05 22:06 GMT+09:00 Takenobu Tani <takenobu.hs at gmail.com>:

> Hi,
>
> Related informatioln.
>
> Intel FMA's information(hardware dependent) is here:
>
>   Chapter 11
>
>   Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Optimization Reference Manual
>
> http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/manuals/64-ia-32-architectures-optimization-manual.pdf
>
>
> Of course, it is information that depends on the particular processor.
> And abstraction level is too low.
>
> PS
> I like Haskell's abstruct naming convention more than "fma":-)
>
> Regards,
> Takenobu
>
>
>
> 2015-05-05 11:54 GMT+09:00 Carter Schonwald <carter.schonwald at gmail.com>:
>
>> pardon the wall of text everyone, but I really want some FMA tooling :)
>>
>> I am going to spend some time later this week and next adding FMA primops
>> to GHC and playing around with different ways to add it to Num (which seems
>> pretty straightforward, though I think we'd all agree it shouldn't be
>> exported by Prelude). And then depending on how Yitzchak's reproposal  of
>> that exactly goes (or some iteration thereof) we can get something
>> useful/usable into 7.12
>>
>> i have codes (ie *dotproducts*!!!!!) where a faster direct FMA for *exact
>> numbers*, and a higher precision FMA for *approximate numbers *(*ie
>> floating point*),  and where I cant sanely use FMA if it lives anywhere
>> but Num unless I rub typeable everywhere and do runtime type checks for
>> applicable floating point types, which kinda destroys parametrically in
>> engineering nice things.
>>
>> @levent: ghc doesn't do any optimization for floating point arithmetic
>> (aside from 1-2 very simple things that are possibly questionable), and
>> until ghc has support for precisly emulating high precision floating point
>> computation in a portable way, probably wont have any interesting floating
>> point computation.  Mandating that fma a b c === a*b+c for inexact number
>> datatypes doesn't quite make sense to me. Relatedly, its a GOOD thing ghc
>> is conservative about optimizing floating point, because it makes doing
>> correct stability analyses tractable!  I look forward to the day that GHC
>> gets a bit more sophisticated about optimizing floating point computation,
>> but that day is still a ways off.
>>
>> relatedly: FMA for float and double are not generally going to be faster
>> than the individual primitive operations, merely more accurate when used
>> carefully.
>>
>> point being*, i'm +1 on adding some manner of FMA operations to Num*
>> (only sane place to put it where i can actually use it for a general use
>> library) and i dont really care if we name it fusedMultiplyAdd,
>> multiplyAndAdd accursedFusionOfSemiRingOperations, or fma. i'd favor
>> "fusedMultiplyAdd" if we want a descriptive name that will be familiar to
>> experts yet easy to google for the curious.
>>
>> to repeat: i'm going to do some leg work so that the double and float
>> prims are portably exposed by ghc-prims (i've spoken with several ghc devs
>> about that, and they agree to its value, and thats a decision outside of
>> scope of the libraries purview), and I do hope we can to a consensus about
>> putting it in Num so that expert library authors can upgrade the guarantees
>> that they can provide end users without imposing any breaking changes to
>> end users.
>>
>> A number of folks have brought up "but Num is broken" as a counter
>> argument to adding FMA support to Num. I emphatically agree  num is borken
>> :), BUT! I do also believe that fixing up Num prelude has the burden of
>> providing a whole cloth design for an alternative design that we can get
>> broad consensus/adoption with.  That will happen by dint of actually
>> experimentation and usage.
>>
>> Point being, adding FMA doesn't further entrench current Num any more
>> than it already is, it just provides expert library authors with a
>> transparent way of improving the experience of their users with a free
>> upgrade in answer accuracy if used carefully. Additionally, when Num's
>> "semiring ish equational laws" are  framed with respect to approximate
>> forwards/backwards stability, there is a perfectly reasonable law for FMA.
>> I am happy to spend some time trying to write that up more precisely IFF
>> that will tilt those in opposition to being in favor.
>>
>> I dont need FMA to be exposed by *prelude/base*, merely by *GHC.Num* as
>> a method therein for Num. If that constitutes a different and *more
>> palatable proposal*  than what people have articulated so far (by
>> discouraging casual use by dint of hiding) then I am happy to kick off a
>> new thread with that concrete design choice.
>>
>> If theres a counter argument thats a bit more substantive than "Num is
>> for exact arithmetic" or "Num is wrong" that will sway me to the other
>> side, i'm all ears, but i'm skeptical of that.
>>
>> I emphatically support those who are displeased with Num to prototype
>> some alternative designs in userland, I do think it'd be great to figure
>> out a new Num prelude we can migrate Haskell / GHC to over the next 2-5
>> years, but again any such proposal really needs to be realized whole cloth
>> before it makes its way to being a libraries list proposal.
>>
>>
>> again, pardon the wall of text, i just really want to have nice things :)
>> -Carter
>>
>>
>> On Mon, May 4, 2015 at 2:22 PM, Levent Erkok <erkokl at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I think `mulAdd a b c` should be implemented as `a*b+c` even for
>>> Double/Float. It should only be an "optmization" (as in modular
>>> arithmetic), not a semantic changing operation. Thus justifying the
>>> optimization.
>>>
>>> "fma" should be the "more-precise" version available for Float/Double. I
>>> don't think it makes sense to have "fma" for other types. That's why I'm
>>> advocating "mulAdd" to be part of "Num" for optimization purposes; and
>>> "fma" reserved for true IEEE754 types and semantics.
>>>
>>> I understand that Edward doesn't like this as this requires a different
>>> class; but really, that's the price to pay if we claim Haskell has proper
>>> support for IEEE754 semantics. (Which I think it should.) The operation is
>>> just different. It also should account for the rounding-modes properly.
>>>
>>> I think we can pull this off just fine; and Haskell can really lead the
>>> pack here. The situation with floats is even worse in other languages. This
>>> is our chance to make a proper implementation, and we have the right tools
>>> to do so.
>>>
>>> -Levent.
>>>
>>> On Mon, May 4, 2015 at 10:58 AM, Artyom <yom at artyom.me> wrote:
>>>
>>>>  On 05/04/2015 08:49 PM, Levent Erkok wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Artyom: That's precisely the point. The true IEEE754 variants where
>>>> precision does matter should be part of a different class. What Edward and
>>>> Yitz want is an "optimized" multiply-add where the semantics is the same
>>>> but one that goes faster.
>>>>
>>>> No, it looks to me that Edward wants to have a more precise operation
>>>> in Num:
>>>>
>>>> I'd have to make a second copy of the function to even try to see the
>>>> precision win.
>>>>
>>>> Unless I'm wrong, you can't have the following things simultaneously:
>>>>
>>>>    1. the compiler is free to substitute *a+b*c* with *mulAdd a b c*
>>>>    2. *mulAdd a b c* is implemented as *fma* for Doubles (and is more
>>>>    precise)
>>>>    3. Num operations for Double (addition and multiplication) always
>>>>    conform to IEEE754
>>>>
>>>>  The true IEEE754 variants where precision does matter should be part
>>>> of a different class.
>>>>
>>>> So, does it mean that you're fine with not having point #3 because
>>>> people who need it would be able to use a separate class for IEEE754 floats?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
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