Methods and apparatus to improve performance of a computing device implementing an exponential function

A non-transitory machine readable storage medium to perform an exponential function of a neural network, the non-transitory machine readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause programmable circuitry to at least:

• determine, based on an input, a first range reduced argument and an accuracy control value for an approximation of the exponential function of the neural network;
• determine, based on the first range reduced argument, a second range reduced argument for the approximation of the exponential function, the second range reduced argument having a smaller data range than the first range reduced argument;
• and
• compute an exponential value of the input based on the accuracy control value and an exponential value of the second range reduced argument, wherein the accuracy control value identifies a number of polynomial terms used to approximate an exponential value of a portion of the second range reduced argument.

A system to perform an exponential function of a neural network comprising:

• interface circuitry to obtain an input;
• programmable circuitry to:
• determine a fixed point value from the input;
• determine, based on the fixed point value, a first range reduced argument and an accuracy control value for an approximation of the exponential function of the neural network;
• determine, based on the first range reduced argument, a second range reduced argument for the approximation of the exponential function, the second range reduced argument having a smaller data range than the first range reduced argument;
• and
• compute an exponential value of the fixed point value based on the accuracy control value and an exponential value of the second range reduced argument, wherein the accuracy control value identifies a number of polynomial terms used to approximate an exponential value of a portion of the second range reduced argument.