floating-point accelerator

1 definition found

floating-point accelerator - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  floating-point accelerator
  
     <hardware> (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)