[Numpy-discussion] What does float64 mean on a 32-bit machine?

[Christopher Barker]

reckoner wrote:
> How can I have a float64 dtype on a 32-bit machine? For example:

float64 is known as "double" in C, just for this reason.

Modern FPUs use 64 bit (actually more bits), so you can get very good 
performance with float64 on 32 bit machines.

And it is the standard Python float as well.


-Chris



> 
> In [90]: x = array([1/3],dtype=float32)
> 
> In [91]: x
> Out[91]: array([ 0.33333334], dtype=float32)
> 
> In [92]: x = array([1/3],dtype=float64)
> 
> In [93]: x
> Out[93]: array([ 0.33333333])
> 
> Obviously, the float32 and float64 representations of 1/3 are different, 
> but what is the meaning of float64 on a 32-bit machine? Shouldn't a 
> 32-bit machine only be able represent float32?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
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