floating-point
PrintA format for processing or storing numbers in a format that has a fixed length mantissa and exponent. Internally in computers, the exponent is normally a power of two. For example:
- 32-bit floating point normally means that the mantissa is 24 bits and the exponent is 8 bits long.
- 64 bit floating point normally means that the mantissa is 53 bits and the exponent is 11 bits long.
- Extended floating point uses a mantissa of 64 bits and an exponent of 15 bits.
All of the above formats are standardized by IEEE 754.
The Intel Itanium processor is internally capable of a mantissa of 64 bits and an exponent of 17 bits.
Additional References
International Standards:
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