e vs exp()?

[Paul Rubin]

"Terry Reedy" <tjreedy at udel.edu> writes:
> At least two of us expected x**y == pow(x,y) == exp(y*log(x)) (a
> standard method, and the only one I could find in Abrahamowitz and
> Stegun, Handbook of Mathematical Functions) but there must be a more
> direct method being used at least in some C libraries now.

I would expect that the C library just uses the machine instructions
for exp and pow, if they are available.  All x86 processors with an
FPU have these instructions.  It's actually possible that an AMD
Athlon could give slightly different results than an Intel Pentium.