interval 2.1.0 released

[Oliver Heimlich]

Hi,

a new release of the interval package for real-valued interval
arithmetic [1] is out, version 2.1.0.

Previously, any arithmetic function in this package has been computed
using GNU MPFR, which is a math library for arbitrary precision that can
simulate IEEE-754 arithmetic.  MPFR is one among few libraries which can
produce platform independent, correctly rounded results for standard
arithmetic operations [2].

This minor update features a bundled math library, CRlibm [3].  The new
library, which is specialized on the data type binary64, can produce
identical results up to 30–100 times faster for several arithmetic
functions.

A complete summary of important user-visible changes is also available
online [4].

The interval package for real-valued interval arithmetic allows one to
evaluate functions over subsets of their domain.  All results are
verified, because interval computations automatically keep track of any
errors.

These concepts can be used to handle uncertainties, estimate arithmetic
errors and produce reliable results.  Also it can be applied to
computer-assisted proofs, constraint programming, and verified computing.

The implementation is based on interval boundaries represented by
binary64 numbers and is conforming to IEEE Std 1788-2015, IEEE standard
for interval arithmetic.

Enjoy Octave and free your intervals,
Oliver

[1] https://octave.sourceforge.io/interval/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_floating_point#Recommended_operations
[3] http://lipforge.ens-lyon.fr/www/crlibm/
[4] https://octave.sourceforge.io/interval/NEWS.html