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dmlc / dlpack

common in-memory tensor structure
https://dmlc.github.io/dlpack/latest
Apache License 2.0
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ABI: uint8 too small for potential `complex quad` itemsize bits? #73

Open seberg opened 3 years ago

seberg commented 3 years ago

If quad-precision takes off, then the current uint8 for the itemsize cannot represent the 128+128 = 256 bits of a complex quad number. Even now that would fail for most long double storage formats (those cannot be represented right now, so I am not sure it matters).

If an ABI break is necessary in the future, maybe this should be bumped to uint16 (maybe some other ones as well)? I guess there will be other ways to work around the limitation, though. And I admit quad-precision complex may well be as bad as it gets and is just at the limit.

leofang commented 3 years ago

We should list a few items that would be great to do if we plan to break ABI.