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The decimal number 0.15625 10 represented in binary is 0.00101 2 (that is, 1/8 + 1/32). (Subscripts indicate the number base .) Analogous to scientific notation , where numbers are written to have a single non-zero digit to the left of the decimal point, we rewrite this number so it has a single 1 bit to the left of the "binary point".
The magnitude of the smallest normal number in a format is given by: b E min {\displaystyle b^{E_{\text{min}}}} where b is the base (radix) of the format (like common values 2 or 10, for binary and decimal number systems), and E min {\textstyle E_{\text{min}}} depends on the size and layout of the format.
The standard defines five basic formats that are named for their numeric base and the number of bits used in their interchange encoding. There are three binary floating-point basic formats (encoded with 32, 64 or 128 bits) and two decimal floating-point basic formats (encoded with 64 or 128 bits).
The significand (or mantissa) of an IEEE floating-point number is the part of a floating-point number that represents the significant digits. For a positive normalised number, it can be represented as m 0.m 1 m 2 m 3...m p−2 m p−1 (where m represents a significant digit, and p is the precision) with non-zero m 0.
The 2008 revision extended the previous standard where it was necessary, added decimal arithmetic and formats, tightened up certain areas of the original standard which were left undefined, and merged in IEEE 854 (the radix-independent floating-point standard). In a few cases, where stricter definitions of binary floating-point arithmetic might ...
In many computer systems, binary floating-point numbers are represented internally using this normalized form for their representations; for details, see normal number (computing). Although the point is described as floating, for a normalized floating-point number, its position is fixed, the movement being reflected in the different values of ...
To approximate the greater range and precision of real numbers, we have to abandon signed integers and fixed-point numbers and go to a "floating-point" format. In the decimal system, we are familiar with floating-point numbers of the form (scientific notation): 1.1030402 × 10 5 = 1.1030402 × 100000 = 110304.02. or, more compactly: 1.1030402E5
It may come as a surprise that terminating decimal fractions can have repeating expansions in binary. It is for this reason that many are surprised to discover that 1/10 + ... + 1/10 (addition of 10 numbers) differs from 1 in binary floating point arithmetic. In fact, the only binary fractions with terminating expansions are of the form of an ...