The presentation :
Old 1980’s ROM (Apple 2e, Commodore 64, ...) uses a Taylor’s series-like to evaluate the exponential function EXP(x) :
EXP(x) = 1 + x + 1/2! x^2 + ... + 1/7! x^7
x is in [-1, 1], thanks to a preliminary work. Another preliminary work is to multiply x by a correction factor 1/ln(2) (better for the algorithm I suppose). So the series must take into account this factor and modify the coefficients :
EXP(x) = 1 + ln(2) x + ln(2)^2 1/2! x^2 + ... + ln(2)^7 1/7! x^7
EXP(x) = a0 + a1 x + a2 x^2 + ... a7 x^7
a0 = 1.000000000
a1 = 0.693147181 ln(2)
a2 = 0.240226507
a3 = 0.055504109
a4 = 0.009618129
a5 = 0.001333356
a6 = 0.000154035
a7 = 0.000015253
To reduce the Taylor error, especially near -1 and 1, the old 1980’s algorithm modify the coefficients with the Chebyshev polynomials approximation. As the comment says :
“TCHEBYSHEV MODIFIED TAYLOR SERIES COEFFICIENTS FOR E**X”
b0 = 1.000000000
b1 = 0.693147186
b2 = 0.240226385
b3 = 0.055505127
b4 = 0.009614017
b5 = 0.001342263
b6 = 0.000143523
b7 = 0.000021499
(see https://github.com/wsoltys/multicomp/blob/master/ROMS/6809/basic.asm line 3852)
Now, the problem :
Where these Chebyshev values come from ?
I did a lot of calculations to retreive these values. I used the normal method : compute the Chebyshev coefficients for EXP(x) up to 8 terms, then replace the Ti(x) by its x polynomial. Or by the economization method : compute Taylor EXP(x) up to x^9, and remove a9*T9(x)/2^8 and a8*T8(x)/2^7 (normally equivalent to the first method). No chance !
The computed Chebyshev coefficients I obtain, in accordance with the literature, are :
c0 = 0.999999801 delta b0 - c0 = 0.000000199
c1 = 0.693147113 b1 - c1 = 0.000000073
c2 = 0.240229556 b2 - c2 = -0.000003171
c3 = 0.055504542 b3 - c3 = 0.000000585
c4 = 0.009610825 b4 - c4 = 0.000003192
c5 = 0.001332605 b5 - c5 = 0.000009658
c6 = 0.000159622 b6 - c6 = -0.000016099
c7 = 0.000015734 b7 - c7 = 0.000005765
Have you an idea ? Is the ROM coefficients really Chebyshev coefficients ? Is this another approximation method ? Am I wrong ?
Thank you for your help.
BR,
see https://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/7065/1980s-rom-which-expn-algorithm-used in retrocomputing forum