Numerical methods for high-speed computers

Abstract

Numerical analysis is the science and art of using digital computing machines to carry out scientific computations, excluding pure data processing. Because of the recent changes in computers, the field is dominated today by the problems of using the large stored-program digital computers. Analog computers, though important both for their output and as a source of methods (too seldom exploited) for digital computers, are not considered here. It is possible to give a rough mathematical classification of the types of computing problems ordinarily met. The following classification is adapted from Forsythe [4].