.NET database and distributed computing tools

News | Visual Studio | Database Technology | Distributed Computing | BFC

---

---

Base/1 Number Class from Base One International Overcomes Loopholes in C++ Arithmetic

New patent-pending technology especially suited for financial, engineering, and scientific calculations

NEW YORK, NY, May 24, 1999 – To overcome the calculation limitations and loopholes of C++ that derive from its roots as a scientific programming language for minicomputers, Base One International Corporation has announced its new Base/1® Number Class software. This innovative patent-pending technology performs the same kind of highly precise mathematical calculations previously only found on mainframe computers because of their orientation toward large-scale business applications. It enables programmers to improve the accuracy of arithmetic in any C++ application and is a general-purpose alternative to the built-in numeric data types of C++, with added safeguards against a variety of common, and not-so-common, errors.

Although C++ has become the tool of choice for building all types of applications, it lacks features to support high-precision decimal arithmetic, used repeatedly in financial, engineering, or scientific calculations. The C++ native numeric data types (int, long, float, double, etc.) work quite well in many situations but their underlying binary representation and limited precision present problems that become more apparent as the number of significant digits increases. For example, rounding can introduce inaccuracies and, even worse, a C++ program can fail to detect the truncation of significant high-order digits in a calculation that produces an overflow.

"Base/1 Number Class has a unique internal representation that makes it exceptionally well suited to database searching, sorting, and indexing," stated Base One International’s Steven Asherman. "Its encoding is so compact and efficient that Number Class can handle any kind of conventional arithmetic while avoiding the built-in limitations of C++."

Organizations that perform financial, engineering, or scientific calculations will find Number Class particularly useful. For example, according to Asherman, large financial institutions that deal with foreign currency conversions, sensitive interest rate calculations, and precise financial reporting requirements continually run into the limitations built into C. "The problem of accuracy was exacerbated when banks changed from 16-bit to 32-bit programs since Microsoft actually lowered the maximum precision of C++ floating point numbers from 19 to 16 digits under Windows 95 and NT," he said. "The new Euro currency standard, which requires extra precision to the right of the decimal point, is now pushing many financial applications past the limit. Conventional C++ floating point arithmetic has become even more likely to yield results that are so inaccurate that they are financially significant and interfere with the balancing of accounts."

Number Class includes fully documented ANSI/C++ source code to let programmers write more accurate programs on any platform. Conversion of existing programs is easy. Just include one header, substitute the Number Class for the C++ numeric data type in any or all declarations, and the rest of the code stays exactly the same. Capabilities include:

• Uncompromisingly exact decimal arithmetic
• Up to 100 significant digits of precision with the decimal point at any desired digit
• Elimination of pervasive rounding errors and automatic detection of overflows
• Efficient arithmetic on both very large and very small numbers
• Fast comparison logic to make it ideal for searching, sorting, and indexing
• Compact representation to minimize memory and disk storage requirements
• Support for null values, a requirement for most database applications

Base One International Corporation

Base One International Corporation develops programming tools for building rock-solid database applications and for moving existing business systems into advanced client/server environments. The company’s object-oriented programming tools make rapid development of complex business software easier without sacrificing performance, reliability, or features. The company is an authorized IBM Solution Developer, Microsoft Independent Software Vendor, Oracle Alliance Partner, and Sybase Alliance Partner. Offices are located in New York City and Bangalore, India. The New York office is at 44 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10003, email at info@boic.com,  www.boic.com.

###

Trademarks

Base/1, BFC, Application Development Framework (ADF), and BIS are trademarks or registered trademarks of Base One International Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

---

News | Visual Studio | Database Technology | Distributed Computing | BFC

Home	Products	Consulting	Case Studies	Order	Contents	Contact	About Us
Copyright © 2012, Base One International Corporation