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Why the CORDIC algorithm lives rent-free in my head
I'm sick of complex blogging solutions, so markdown files in a git repo it is - francisrstokes/githublog
CORDIC is an algorithm for computing trig functions like sin, cos, tan etc on low powered hardware, without an FPU (i.e. no floating point) or expensive lookup tables. Essentially, the actual operations of the algorithm are incredibly simple - just shifts and adds, as I mentioned before - but it does this by combining vector math, trigonometry, convergence proofs, and some clever computer science. In fact, I got nerd-sniped into this whole CORDIC investigation after listening to Dan Mangum's fantastic Microarch Club podcast, where Philip Freidin dropped the spicy hot-take that "Floating point is a crutch", and that using it might be a sign that you don't really understand the algorithm you're working on.
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