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Double precision is an alternative floating-point type. The Fortran
Standard only specifies that it should have greater precision than the
real type but in practice, since the double precision storage unit is
twice the size, it is safe to assume that the precision is at least
doubled. The number range may, however, be the same as that for real
type.
Although double precision values occupy twice as much memory
as real (or integer) values, computations on them do not
necessarily take twice as long.
Helen Rowlands
8/27/1998