floating point
system in which a quantity is denoted by one number multiplied by a power of the number base
Floating point
In
computing, floating-point is a numerical-representation system in which a
string of digits (or
bits) represents a
real number. The most commonly encountered representation is that defined by the
IEEE 754 Standard. The name "floating-point" refers to the fact that the
radix point (decimal point, or, more commonly in computers, binary point) can be placed anywhere relative to the digits within the string. This position is indicated separately in the internal representation, and floating-point representation can thus be thought of as a computer realization of
scientific notation.
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floating-point
<
programming> A number representation consisting of a
mantissa, M, an
exponent, E, and an (assumed)
radix (or "base") . The number represented is M*R^E where R is the radix - usually ten but sometimes 2.
Many different representations are used for the mantissa and exponent themselves. The
IEEE specify a
standard representation which is used by many hardware floating-point systems.
See also
floating-point accelerator,
floating-point unit.
Normalisation is the process of converting a floating point number into
canonical form where any number other than zero has a mantissa whose first digit is non-zero.
Opposite:
fixed-point.
(1995-03-21)
(c) Copyright 1993 by Denis Howe
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