Accuracy of transcendental functions

"Functions adhering to a relaxed specification" on page 223 explained that the transcendental functions--Log, Exp, Sin, ArcTan, for example--cannot readily be computed with just one rounding error. Some platforms compute transcendental functions nearly correctly rounded for all four rounding directions. Others compute with roundoff amounting to a few units in the last place of the result.

NOTE A portable application does not depend on last-bit accuracy of transcendental functions, nor on identical results across different platforms.

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