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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/L21754/01
Title: PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES FOR EXACT REAL NUMBER COMPUTATION: THEORY AND IMPLEMENTATION
Principal Investigator: Edalat, Professor A
Other Investigators:
Hankin, Professor C
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Computing
Organisation: Imperial College London
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 May 1996 Ends: 31 January 2000 Value (£): 325,154
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Fundamentals of Computing
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
It is generally accepted that floating-point computation is suitable for a wide range of applications. However, it is well-known that reliability issues are of major importance in many applications. In general, when the solution of a problem involves a large amount of floating-point computations, round-off errors may well produce grossly inaccurate or even incorrect results.Domain theory, a mathematical theory of computation, has already been successful in exact real number computation, eg in the computation of integrals. We propose to develop a framework for real number computation based on domain theory, semantics and abstract interpretation. This framework is independent of any programming paradigm. However, we propose to implement this framework in a prototype functional programming language which provides an elegant and tractable mathematical setting for developing, analysing, optimising and reasoning about programs. Work on domain theory and semantics will be applied to the development of techniques for exact real number programming. Work on static analysis based on abstract interpretation will be applied to the design and implementation of algorithms for code optimisation. This framework can in future be implemented in imperative languages such as C or Fortran and can lead to the design of hardware for exact real number computation.
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Organisation Website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk