We consider approximating analytic functions on the interval $$[-1,1]$$
[
-
1
,
1
]
from their values at a set of $$m+1$$
m
+
1
equispaced nodes. A result of Platte, Trefethen & Kuijlaars states that fast and stable approximation from equispaced samples is generally impossible. In particular, any method that converges exponentially fast must also be exponentially ill-conditioned. We prove a positive counterpart to this ‘impossibility’ theorem. Our ‘possibility’ theorem shows that there is a well-conditioned method that provides exponential decay of the error down to a finite, but user-controlled tolerance $$\epsilon > 0$$
ϵ
>
0
, which in practice can be chosen close to machine epsilon. The method is known as polynomial frame approximation or polynomial extensions. It uses algebraic polynomials of degree n on an extended interval $$[-\gamma ,\gamma ]$$
[
-
γ
,
γ
]
, $$\gamma > 1$$
γ
>
1
, to construct an approximation on $$[-1,1]$$
[
-
1
,
1
]
via a SVD-regularized least-squares fit. A key step in the proof of our main theorem is a new result on the maximal behaviour of a polynomial of degree n on $$[-1,1]$$
[
-
1
,
1
]
that is simultaneously bounded by one at a set of $$m+1$$
m
+
1
equispaced nodes in $$[-1,1]$$
[
-
1
,
1
]
and $$1/\epsilon $$
1
/
ϵ
on the extended interval $$[-\gamma ,\gamma ]$$
[
-
γ
,
γ
]
. We show that linear oversampling, i.e. $$m = c n \log (1/\epsilon ) / \sqrt{\gamma ^2-1}$$
m
=
c
n
log
(
1
/
ϵ
)
/
γ
2
-
1
, is sufficient for uniform boundedness of any such polynomial on $$[-1,1]$$
[
-
1
,
1
]
. This result aside, we also prove an extended impossibility theorem, which shows that such a possibility theorem (and consequently the method of polynomial frame approximation) is essentially optimal.