In article <opr5brv9e1zjc5hb@news.povray.org> , Fredrik Eriksson 
<noo### [at] nowherecom>  wrote:

> That is, in fact, the way Pentium4 processors do integer multiplication.

This is plain wrong. Integers are not converted to floating-point numbers.
They simply used the same multiplier hardware.

> It has little to do with stupidity, and everything to do with saving space
> on the die.

While in the first Pentium 4 processors the complex integer unit and the
floating-point unit did indeed share the multiplier hardware, this is no
longer the case in current processors of the Pentium 4 generation.  Sharing
the multiplier unit causes serious contention problems, and it definitely
cannot have been the preferred solution, only one Intel had to use until it
could afford an even larger die.

    Thorsten

____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

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