I have a client that is migrating a large C++ software base from 32- to 64-bit code in MS Visual Studio. One of the problems they are having is that the 32- and 64-bit versions of the C library exp() function produce results that differ by 1ulp for some operands, and this is causing regression tests to fail. One potential solution I am considering is to use Intel MKL instead of the Microsoft library. So I have a few questions:
1. Do the 32-bit and 64-bit builds of MKL produce identical results for exp() and other transcendental functions, for all operands, assuming that SSE2 is enabled for our 32-bit code?
2. Although the client has mostly Intel hardware, I believe they have a few AMD Opteron-based server farms. Does MKL work on Opterons? If so, are there any performance penalties if MKL is used in place of the Microsoft library?
3. Is there any way of getting the Microsoft .NET framework to use MKL? I assume it may have the same 32/64-bit differences, although I haven't tested that yet.
4. What other benefits might my client gain by switching to MKL?
Thanks in advance - dc42