Comment by AlotOfReading
15 hours ago
You already have an FPU that approximates exp() and ln() really fast, because float<->integer conversions approximate the power 2 functions respectively. Doing it accurately runs face-first into the tablemaker's dilemma, but you could do this with just 2 conversions, 2 FMAs (for power adjustments), and a subtraction per. A lot of cases would be even faster. Whether that's worth it will be situational.
What are some of your favorite sources to dig into this field as a whole?
Anything discussing fast inverse sqrt will go over the logarithmic side [0], as it's the key insight behind that code. Exp is just the other direction. It's not widely documented in text otherwise, to my knowledge.
[0] https://github.com/francisrstokes/githublog/blob/main/2024/5...