SoftPosit-Python

This is the python wrapper (using SWIG) of SoftPosit

Supported on

• 64 bit machines
• Linux and Windows OS

Installation

Support only on Linux, OS-X and Windows systems with gcc. Please note that you will need to have gcc installed on your system.

Currently we support only 64-bit systems:

Wheels support:

• Windows (Python 3.5-3.7)
• OS-X (Python 2.7 and 3.7)
• Linux (Python 2.7, 3.4-3.7)

For all other versions, you will have to compile the source as a part of pip installation. Consequently for windows and OS-X users, please install Visual Studio Build Tools and Xcode respectively.

Tested on Windows (cl.exe and Mingw-w64) Mac-OSX (CLANG) and Linux SuSE (GNU).

First install the prerequisite:

pip install requests

Pip Install

To install using pip (might require root priviledges):

pip install softposit

To install using pip in user space:

pip install softposit --user

To force it to install the latest version in user space:

pip install --no-cache-dir softposit --user

Source Install

To install via source (might require root priviledges)::

python setup.py install

To install via source in user space:

python setup.py install --user

To install from source in a specific directory:

python setup.py install --prefix=YOUR_PREFERRED_DIRECTORY

To use

https://posithub.org/docs/PositTutorial_Part1.html

The easiest way is to use ipython

Example - initialisation and, viewing bits and values

from softposit import *
#Initialise to zero
pA = posit32()

#Initialise the bits
pB = posit16(bits=0x98FA)

#Initialise based on real values
pC = posit8(0.1875)

#To view the bits (formatted) -> works only in ipython
pC.toBinaryFormatted()

#To view the bits without formatting
pB.ToBinary()

#To view real value
print(pB)

Example

import softposit as sp

#Initialise a 16-bit posit
a = sp.posit16(2.6)
b = a + 2.1
a *= 2
c = b/a


# fused-multiply-add => c + (0.2* 2.3)
c.fma(0.2, 2.3)

result = c.sqrt()

# convert a 16-bit posit to 8-bit posit
p8 = c.toPosit8() 


#quire - initialise to zero when declared
q = sp.quire16()

#fused multiply subtract -> q + (6.2*1.2)
q.qms(6.2, 1.2)

#convert quire to posit
c = q.toPosit()

#to clear quire to zero
q.clr()

#print
print(a)

Acknowledgement

Special thanks to Shin Yee for his support. If not for his help, this port might take forever!