At 08:35 AM 2/10/98 -0700, you wrote:
<snip>
>  And don't forget that the sqrt routine chews up 3,000 some odd cycles,
>  for a poor aproximation, when the exact result can be gotten in less than
>  200 cycles.
>
>> [...]
>

BTW, I'm just curious, what method do most sqrt routenes use? I once wrote
a very small QBASIC program just for the heck of it that calculated sqrt
using newton's method on the equation x^2 = c where c was the input and the
newton's method result for x was the output. It converged to a VERY
accurate result in only a few loops. I know that QBASIC is quite different
from assembler, of course, but the same basic algorithim can be used as
long as you have access to a division routene.
Another method which is a bit more primitive but is bascially the same
thing is the Heron (sp?) of Alexandria's method. I have never tried it, but
I think it executes in roughly the same amount of time.

Sean


+--------------------------------+
| Sean Breheny                   |
| Amateur Radio Callsign: KA3YXM |
| Electrical Engineering Student |
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