To: J3 08-208 From: Bas Braams Subject: Interpretation, precise f.p. semantics of the REAL intrinsic Date: 2008 June 15 REQUEST FOR INTERPRETATION: Must the intrinsic function REAL with KIND parameter wp return a value that is a REAL (KIND=wp) floating point number? RATIONALE FOR THE QUESTION: Computer hardware may use a wider floating-point format for registers than for memory; e.g., 80 bits for registers and 64 bits for memory for the case of standard double precision floating point numbers. Some algorithms require a high level of control over floating point semantics. If the intrinsic function REAL with KIND parameter wp is guaranteed to return a REAL (KIND=wp) result then a programmer can use this to force intermediate results into main memory format, never mind that the optimizing compiler may have placed the intermediate in a register. I am interested in a J3 interpretation of this matter, especially a loud and clear affirmative interpretation, because it appears that some present Fortran compilers optimize away my explicit use of the REAL intrinsic. The context is code for compensated summation (Kahan summation). I appreciate that parentheses are inviolable courtesy of the Fortran standard, but in order to have code that cannot be broken by an optimizing compiler I seem to need also a language mechanism to force intermediate results into main memory format. Bas Braams Chemistry Department and Emerson Center for Scientific Computation Emory University Atlanta, GA