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(gmp.info.gz) Introduction to GMP

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 Introduction to GNU MP
 **********************
 
 GNU MP is a portable library written in C for arbitrary precision
 arithmetic on integers, rational numbers, and floating-point numbers.
 It aims to provide the fastest possible arithmetic for all applications
 that need higher precision than is directly supported by the basic C
 types.
 
    Many applications use just a few hundred bits of precision; but some
 applications may need thousands or even millions of bits.  GMP is
 designed to give good performance for both, by choosing algorithms
 based on the sizes of the operands, and by carefully keeping the
 overhead at a minimum.
 
    The speed of GMP is achieved by using fullwords as the basic
 arithmetic type, by using sophisticated algorithms, by including
 carefully optimized assembly code for the most common inner loops for
 many different CPUs, and by a general emphasis on speed (as opposed to
 simplicity or elegance).
 
    There is assembly code for these CPUs: ARM, DEC Alpha 21064, 21164,
 and 21264, AMD 29000, AMD K6, K6-2, Athlon, and Athlon64, Hitachi
 SuperH and SH-2, HPPA 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0, Intel Pentium, Pentium
 Pro/II/III, Pentium 4, generic x86, Intel IA-64, i960, Motorola
 MC68000, MC68020, MC88100, and MC88110, Motorola/IBM PowerPC 32 and 64,
 National NS32000, IBM POWER, MIPS R3000, R4000, SPARCv7, SuperSPARC,
 generic SPARCv8, UltraSPARC, DEC VAX, and Zilog Z8000.  Some
 optimizations also for Cray vector systems, Clipper, IBM ROMP (RT), and
 Pyramid AP/XP.
 
 For up-to-date information on GMP, please see the GMP web pages at
 
      `http://swox.com/gmp/'
 
 The latest version of the library is available at
 
      `ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gmp'
 
    Many sites around the world mirror `ftp.gnu.org', please use a mirror
 near you, see `http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html' for a full list.
 
    There are three public mailing lists of interest.  One for release
 announcements, one for general questions and discussions about usage of
 the GMP library and one for bug reports.  For more information, see
 
      `http://swox.com/mailman/listinfo/'.
 
    The proper place for bug reports is <gmp-bugs@swox.com>.  See 
 Reporting Bugs for information about reporting bugs.
 
 
 How to use this Manual
 ======================
 
 Everyone should read  GMP Basics.  If you need to install the
 library yourself, then read  Installing GMP.  If you have a
 system with multiple ABIs, then read  ABI and ISA, for the
 compiler options that must be used on applications.
 
    The rest of the manual can be used for later reference, although it
 is probably a good idea to glance through it.
 
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