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A fixed-point representation of a fractional number is essentially an integer that is to be implicitly multiplied by a fixed scaling factor. For example, the value 1.23 can be stored in a variable as the integer value 1230 with implicit scaling factor of 1/1000 (meaning that the last 3 decimal digits are implicitly assumed to be a decimal fraction), and the value 1 230 000 can be represented ...
A fixed-point theorem is a result saying that at least one fixed point exists, under some general condition. [1] For example, the Banach fixed-point theorem (1922) gives a general criterion guaranteeing that, if it is satisfied, fixed-point iteration will always converge to a fixed point.
In computing, floating-point arithmetic (FP) is arithmetic on subsets of real numbers formed by a signed sequence of a fixed number of digits in some base, called a significand, scaled by an integer exponent of that base. Numbers of this form are called floating-point numbers. [1]: 3 [2]: 10
A floating-point data type is a compromise between the flexibility of a general rational number data type and the speed of fixed-point arithmetic. It uses some of the bits in the data type to specify an exponent for the denominator, today usually power of two although both ten and sixteen have been used. [2]
Variable-length arithmetic operations are considerably slower than fixed-length format floating-point instructions. When high performance is not a requirement, but high precision is, variable length arithmetic can prove useful, though the actual accuracy of the result may not be known.
Compared with the fixed-point number system, the floating-point number system is more efficient in representing real numbers so it is widely used in modern computers. While the real numbers R {\displaystyle \mathbb {R} } are infinite and continuous, a floating-point number system F {\displaystyle F} is finite and discrete.
A decimal data type could be implemented as either a floating-point number or as a fixed-point number. In the fixed-point case, the denominator would be set to a fixed power of ten. In the floating-point case, a variable exponent would represent the power of ten to which the mantissa of the number is multiplied.
For floating-point arithmetic, the mantissa was restricted to a hundred digits or fewer, and the exponent was restricted to two digits only. The largest memory supplied offered 60 000 digits, however Fortran compilers for the 1620 settled on fixed sizes such as 10, though it could be specified on a control card if the default was not satisfactory.