[drivebycomment]

> In order to achieve increased math processing speed, Intel broke mathematics algorithms down into part algorithm and part lookup tables - that is instead of having mathematics algorithms complete the whole task (which is the logical way of doing things).

This is nonsense. There's no functional difference between "lookup table" and "algorithm" (whatever that means) when it comes to a circuit design. Both are perfectly valid ways, nothing inherently wrong with either.

[hilbert42]

See links in tadfisher's reply, they provide a summary. (My comment was simplified for the HN post, his links provide a comprehensive description).