ieee floating point standard

1 definition found

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

  IEEE Floating Point Standard
  754
  IEC 559
  IEEE 754
  
     <standard, mathematics> (IEEE 754) "IEEE Standard for Binary
     Floating-Point Arithmetic (ANSI/IEEE Std 754-1985)" or IEC
     559: "Binary floating-point arithmetic for microprocessor
     systems".  A standard, used by many CPUs and FPUs, which
     defines formats for representing floating-point numbers;
     representations of special values (e.g. infinity, very small
     values, NaN); five exceptions, when they occur, and what
     happens when they do occur; four rounding modes; and a set
     of floating-point operations that will work identically on any
     conforming system.
  
     IEEE 754 specifies formats for representing floating-point
     values: single-precision (32-bit) is required,
     double-precision (64-bit) is optional.  The standard also
     mentions that some implementations may include single-extended
     precision (80-bit) and double-extended precision (128-bit)
     formats.
  
     [On-line document?]
  
     (2003-06-17)