posit

Borrowed from Latin positus, perfect participle of pōnō (“put, place”). Sense 3 (type of number format) was coined by American computer scientist and businessman John Gustafson in 2017.^[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒzɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑzɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɒzɪt

posit (plural posits)

1. Something that is posited; a postulate.
2. (aviation) Abbreviation of position.
4. (computing) A number format representing a real number consisting of a sign bit, a variable-size "regime" part (which modifies the exponent), up to two exponent bits, and a fraction part, proposed as a more efficient alternative to IEEE 754 floats in AI applications.
   • 2022 September 25, Dina Genkina, “Posits, a New Kind of Number, Improves the Math of AI”, in IEEE Spectrum‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 September 2024:

     With their new hardware implementation, which was synthesized in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), the Complutense team was able to compare computations done using 32-bit floats and 32-bit posits side by side.

• (for meaning #2) Started by USAF Fighter pilots when needing to know the position of a wingman. I.e. Lead pilot would say "2-posit" and #2 would reply: "5 o'clock high".

posit (third-person singular simple present posits, present participle positing, simple past and past participle posited)

1. To assume the existence of; to postulate.

   Coordinate term: assert

   • 1908, ARISTOTLE, translated by W. D. Ross, Metaphysics, Book 1, Part 5:

     some who posit both this cause and besides this the source of movement, which we have got from some as single and from other as twofold.

2. To propose for consideration or study; to suggest.
   • 2023, Tim Birkhead, Birds and Us, Penguin Books, page 193:

     Ray's natural theology posited that God was responsible for the near-perfect match between an animal and its environment and encouraged readers to seek evidence for God through the study of nature.

3. To put (something somewhere) firmly; to place or position.
   • 2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 113:

     Among many Indians, however, an exonormative view, which even today posits British English as the target model, appears to be firmly in place.

• Posit (number format) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• piots, topis

posít

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