Re: [office-comment] Extending the PERCENTILE() Function

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

Leonard Mada <discoleo@gmx.net> 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