I would like to know how logarithms are calculated by computers. The GNU C library, for example, uses a call to the fyl2x() assembler instruction, which means that logarithms are calculated directly from the hardware.
So the question is: what algorithm is used by computers to calculate logarithms?
Best Answer
It really depends on the CPU.
For intel IA64, apparently they use Taylor series combined with a table.
More info can be found here: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.24.5177
and here: http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/arith/1999/0116/00/01160004.pdf