Leonard Mada <> wrote on 06/03/2008 04:49:44 PM:
> Dear list members,
>
> I propose the following extension to the percentile function:
>
> Syntax: PERCENTILE( NumberSequence Data ; Number x )
> Syntax: PERCENTILE( NumberSequence Data ; NumberSequence x )
>
> where x:
> is a number between 0 and 1, or
> a sequence of numbers, all between 0 and 1.
>
Hi Leonard, just so I'm clear, the extension is the 2nd form of
PERCENTILE you list, right? It would presumably be a vector function.
An unrelated question for you, since you've obviously spent some time
thinking of spreadsheet performance -- Now that we see increased numbers
of multi-core processors on desktop machines, what do you estimate would
be the best way of taking advantage of this?
It seems that in some cases you'll have a spreadsheet with 1000's of
formulas, but none of them especially slower than the others. In that
case, a parallelizable calculation chain will split the load into two
threads. But in some cases the calculation time might be dominated by
just one or two cells. In that case, a parallel implementation of a
particular function would give the greatest benefit.
In other words, I wonder whether there is a significant boost in
calculation performance we can get by just using the current generation of
hardware better.
(and I wonder if there are some spreadsheet functions that can be
off-loaded to a graphics card...)
-Rob
