Definition:Floating Point Representation
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Definition
Floating point representation is a technique whereby numbers are held in a computer in standard scientific notation.
![]() | This needs considerable tedious hard slog to complete it. In particular: This is just a placeholder for now -- while we need to cover the mathematics of computing, I'm not prepared to start that yet, there is a lot of work to be done first. To discuss this page in more detail, feel free to use the talk page. When this work has been completed, you may remove this instance of {{Finish}} from the code.If you would welcome a second opinion as to whether your work is correct, add a call to {{Proofread}} the page. |
Examples
CRAY-1
In the CRAY-1 supercomputer, a number is held in floating point representation in a total of $64$ bits, of which $15$ bits hold the exponent.
Sources
- 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $2^{86243} - 1$