Online Computer Terms Dictionary - F

floating head

hard disk

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)

floating-point accelerator

(FPA) Additional hardware to perform functions on floating-point numbers such as addition, multiplication, logarithms, exponentials, trigonometric functions and various kinds of rounding and error detection. A floating-point accelerator often functions as a co-processor to the CPU.

The term "floating-point accelerator" suggests a physically larger system, often an extra circuit board, whereas a "floating-point unit" is probably a single chip or even part of a chip.

(1994-12-01)

Floating-Point SPECbaserate

SPECrate_base_fp92

Floating-Point SPECbaseratio

SPECbase_fp92

Floating-Point SPECrate

SPECrate_fp92

Floating-Point SPECratio

SPECfp92

floating point underflow

underflow

Floating-Point Unit

(FPU) A floating-point accelerator, usually in a single integrated circuit, possible on the same IC as the central processing unit.

(1994-10-27)

floating underflow

underflow