PROFIL/BIAS - A FAST INTERVAL LIBRARY

The interval data type is currently not supported in common programming languages. Therefore the implementation of algorithms using interval arithmetic requires special programming environments or at least special libraries. In this paper we present the C++ class library PROFIL which provides a user friendly environment for implementing interval algorithms. The main goals in the design of PROFIL were speed and portability. Therefore all interval operations in PROFIL use BIAS (Basic Interval Arithmetic Subroutines) [16]. BIAS defines a concise and portable interface for the basic scalar, vector, and matrix operations. The interface is independent of a specific interval representation or computation but permits machine specific and fast implementations. Based on this general specification we present an implementation in C using a lower/upper bound representation of intervals and directed roundings. By using few assembler instructions for switching the rounding modes and avoiding sign tests and rounding mode switches wherever possible, the computational costs of the interval operations were reduced significantly. This is especially important for RISC machines, where floating point instructions can be executed in Few machine cycles. Comparisons with other interval arithmetic packages show an improvement in speed of about one order of magnitude.