Hardware Support for Multivariable Floating Point Function Generation

A method suited for hardware implementation assists in evaluating a multivariable, floating-point function F(X,Y,...Z) defined on an N-dimensional rectangular grid. A preprocessing stage analyzes the function’s breakpoints for each dimension. It determines a subinterval range that includes the breakpoint range for that dimension and subdivides the subinterval range into equal-sized subintervals in a procedure that enables easy identification of the breakpoint interval containing a subinterval. The method’s run-time stage processes the N components of the input argument in parallel to identify the N-dimensional rectangular cell containing the input argument. At run time, two additions