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One case that comes to mind is multiplayer games that rely on each participant running identical inputs on identical simulation code producing identical outputs. Doing so on floating point inputs is arguably madness, especially using vendor-provided functions or instructions as part of the process, but that doesn't mean it doesn't get done. Small differences can accumulate and desync the game rapidly.


IEEE floats are (nominally) deterministic in part, although that part [0] doesn't happen to include the transcendental functions.

You are right, though, that there's a lot of software out there that assumes determinism without being anywhere near sufficiently circumspect.

[0] http://randomascii.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/floating-point-d...




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