This problem traces back to f2c source code conversions and to the K&R C convention of promoting float to double. However, it persists beyond the f2c converted code because the error had established itself at that point, and in order for new tests to pass old benchmarks, the conversion error had to be propagated. The C code for a typical blas library has preprocessor macros that allow the installation to select which convention to use, so to at least a substantial fraction of C programmers, this type conversion has become the “correct” behavior, despite the fact that the reference fortran code never had this conversion.
I did submit the error to Apple, and they did respond that they were working on the code (and presumably the associated tests). I have not installed a recent Xcode or the command line tools (which is where the -framework accelerate libraries live), so I do not know if it has been corrected since the original posts in this thread. Has anyone here compiled and run these tests with recent MacOS or Xcode software versions?