floating point - Article Index

Encyclopedia - Central Processing Unit: Encyclopedia Ii - Central Processing Unit - Design And Implementation
Central processing unit - Integer precision. The way a CPU represents numbers is a design choice that affects the most basic ways in wh...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Cobol: Encyclopedia - Cobol
COBOL is a third-generation programming language. Its name is an acronym, for COmmon Business Oriented Language, defining its primary dom...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Central Processing Unit: Encyclopedia - Central Processing Unit
A central processing unit (CPU), or sometimes simply processor, is the component in a digital computer that interprets and executes instr...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Arbitrary-precision Arithmetic: Encyclopedia - Arbitrary-precision Arithmetic
On a computer, arbitrary-precision arithmetic, also called bignum arithmetic, is a technique that allows computer programs to perform cal...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Basic Programming Language: Encyclopedia - Basic Programming Language
BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code[1]) is a family of high-level programming languages. Originally invented in 1964 ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Word Computer Science: Encyclopedia - Word Computer Science
In computing, "word" is a term for the natural unit of data used by a particular computer design. A word is simply a fixed-sized group of...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Action Programming Language: Encyclopedia - Action Programming Language
Action! was a programming language, editor and in-memory 6502 compiler created by Clinton Parker working for Optimized Systems Software a...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - 3d Projection: Encyclopedia - 3d Projection
A 3D projection is a mathematical transformation used to project three dimensional points onto a two dimensional plane. Often this is don...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Cell Microprocessor: Encyclopedia - Cell Microprocessor
Cell is a microprocessor jointly developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. The Cell architecture is intended to be scalable through the use of...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Bash: Encyclopedia - Bash
Bash is a Unix command shell written for the GNU project. Its name is an acronym for Bourne-again shell —a pun on the Bourne shell (sh)...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Type Conversion: Encyclopedia - Type Conversion
In aviation, type conversion refers to the training pilots undertake in order to fly types of aircraft they have not operated before. Ty...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Chinese Numerals: Encyclopedia - Chinese Numerals
Bases Base 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,16, 20, 24, 26, 27, 30, 32, 36, 60, 64 Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Float: Encyclopedia - Float
There are several meanings of float: an air-filled vessel such as a boat or ship floats on water; buoyancy float (parade), a decorated v...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Arithmetic Logic Unit: Encyclopedia - Arithmetic Logic Unit
The arithmetic logic unit/arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) of a computer's CPU is a part of the execution unit, a core component of all CPUs. ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - 64-bit: Encyclopedia - 64-bit
In computer architecture, 64-bit is an adjective used to describe integers, memory addresses or other data units that are at most 64 bits...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - 6000000 Number: Encyclopedia - 6000000 Number
6000000 is the number after 5999999 and before 6000001. 6000000 number - In mathematics. 6000000 is a 2000001-gonal number. It is one of...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Viswanath's Constant: Encyclopedia - Viswanath's Constant
Viswanath's constant is a mathematical constant, occurring in number theory - more specifically in the study of randomized Fibonacci sequ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - X86: Encyclopedia - X86
x86 or 80x86 is the generic name of a microprocessor architecture first developed and manufactured by Intel. The x86 architecture current...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Z3: Encyclopedia - Z3
Konrad Zuse's Z3 was the first working freely programmable, fully automatic machine, whose attributes have often been the exact ones used...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Trigonometric Function: Encyclopedia - Trigonometric Function
In mathematics, the trigonometric functions are functions of an angle, important when studying triangles and modeling periodic phenomena....   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Software Bug: Encyclopedia - Software Bug
A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from working as intended, or produces...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Powerpc: Encyclopedia Ii - Powerpc - History
The history of the PowerPC begins with IBM's 801 prototype chip of John Cocke's RISC ideas in the late '70s. 801-based cores were used in...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Z3: Encyclopedia Ii - Z3 - How The Z3 Relates To Other Work
Z3 - The Z3 in the context of previous and later designs. Unlike the first non-programmable computer built by Wilhelm Schickard in 162...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Word Computer Science: Encyclopedia Ii - Word Computer Science - Word Size Choice
When a computer architecture is designed, the choice of a word size is of substantial importance. There are design considerations which e...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - History Of Computer Hardware In Communist Countries: Encyclopedia Ii - History Of Computer Hardware In Communist Countries - Bulgarian Computers
In the 80s Bulgaria manufactured computers according to agreement within the COMECON: mainframes: ISOT series and ES EVM series (abbrevi...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Playstation 3: Encyclopedia Ii - Playstation 3 - Hardware Specifications
A simple comparison of the system architectures appears to indicate that the floating point capability of the PS3 is better than that of ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Vorbis: Encyclopedia Ii - Vorbis - Hardware And Software Support
Tremor, a version of the Vorbis decoder which uses fixed-point arithmetic (rather than floating point), was made available to the public ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Ibm Mainframe: Encyclopedia Ii - Ibm Mainframe - History
From 1950 to 1965, IBM and several other companies manufactured numerous computer models, most of which were incompatible with each other...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers: Encyclopedia Ii - Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers - Overview
IEEE's Constitution defines the purposes of the organization as "scientific and educational, directed toward the advancement of the theor...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Identifier: Encyclopedia Ii - Identifier - Identifiers In Computer Languages
In computer languages, identifiers are textual tokens (also called symbols) which name language entities. In programming languages, examp...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Ibm Power: Encyclopedia Ii - Ibm Power - History
IBM POWER - The 801 project. In 1974, IBM started a project with a design objective of creating a large telephone-switching network wit...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Ibm 7090: Encyclopedia Ii - Ibm 7090 - Ibm 7094 And Ibm 7040/7044
An upgraded version, the IBM 7094, was first installed in September 1962. It had seven index registers, instead of three on the earlier m...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Pilot: Encyclopedia Ii - Pilot - Command Letters
The following commands are used in "core PILOT". A: Accept input into "accept buffer". Examples: R:Next line of input replaces current co...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Pdp-11: Encyclopedia Ii - Pdp-11 - Pdp-11 Models
The PDP-11 processors tended to fall into several natural groups depending on the original design upon which they are based and which I/O...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Ibm 700/7000 Series: Encyclopedia Ii - Ibm 700/7000 Series - Scientific Architecture 704/709/7090/7094
IBM 700/7000 series - Data Formats. Numbers were 36 bits long, both fixed point and floating point. (See: Why 36 bits?) Fixed point nu...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Infinite Loop: Encyclopedia Ii - Infinite Loop - Looping
Looping is repeating an instruction set until a specific condition is met. An infinite loop occurs when the condition will never be met, ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Information Hiding: Encyclopedia Ii - Information Hiding - Example
Information hiding serves as an effective criteria for dividing any piece of equipment, software or hardware, into modules of functionali...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Lua Programming Language: Encyclopedia Ii - Lua Programming Language - Features
Lua is intended for use as an extension or scripting language, and is compact enough to fit on a variety of host platforms. It supports o...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Vorbis: Encyclopedia Ii - Vorbis - Hardware And Software Support
Tremor, a version of the Vorbis decoder which uses fixed-point arithmetic (rather than floating point), was made available to the public ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Intel Xscale: Encyclopedia Ii - Intel Xscale - Families
The XSCALE core is used in a number of microcontroller families manufactured by Intel: notably Application Processors (with the prefix PX...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Ieee 754r: Encyclopedia Ii - Ieee 754r - Summary Of The Revisions
The most obvious enhancements to the standard are the addition of 128-bit and decimal formats, and some new operations, however there hav...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Mbasic: Encyclopedia Ii - Mbasic - Features
MBASIC was an interpreter. Program source text was stored in memory in tokenized form, with BASIC keywords replaced by one-byte tokens wh...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Numerical Analysis: Encyclopedia Ii - Numerical Analysis - General Introduction
Many problems in continuous mathematics do not possess a closed-form solution. Examples are finding the integral of exp(−x2) (see error...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Numeral System: Encyclopedia Ii - Numeral System - Types Of Numeral Systems
The simplest numeral system is the unary numeral system, in which every natural number is represented by a corresponding number of symbol...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Number-theoretic Transform: Encyclopedia Ii - Number-theoretic Transform - Definition
The discrete Fourier transform is given by The number-theoretic transform operates on a sequence of n numbers, modulus a prime number ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Xbox: Encyclopedia Ii - Xbox - History
Xbox - Development. The Xbox was initially developed within Microsoft by a small team which included Seamus Blackley, a game developer ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Ibm Mainframe: Encyclopedia Ii - Ibm Mainframe - History
From 1952 into the late 1960s, IBM manufactured and marketed several large computer models, known as the IBM 700/7000 series. The 700s we...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Type Conversion: Encyclopedia Ii - Type Conversion - Implicit Type Conversion
Implicit type conversion, also known as coercion, is an automatic type conversion by the compiler. Some languages allow, or even require ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Edvac: Encyclopedia Ii - Edvac - Project Origin And Plans
The design for the EDVAC was developed before the ENIAC was even operational, it was intended to resolve many of the problems created by ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Arithmetic Logic Unit: Encyclopedia Ii - Arithmetic Logic Unit - Practical Overview
The computer’s service revolves directly around the ALU. Fundamentally, the ALU receives the data through input registers that are give...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Cdc 6600: Encyclopedia Ii - Cdc 6600 - History And Impact
CDC's first products were based on the machines designed at ERA, which Seymour Cray had been asked to update after moving to CDC. After a...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Ariane 5 Flight 501: Encyclopedia Ii - Ariane 5 Flight 501 - Summary
The Ariane 5 software reused the specifications from the Ariane 4, but the Ariane 5's flight path was considerably different and beyond t...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Ariane 5: Encyclopedia Ii - Ariane 5 - Launch History
Ariane 5's first test flight (Ariane 5 Flight 501) on 4 June 1996 failed, with the rocket self-destructing 37 seconds after launch becaus...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Focal Programming Language: Encyclopedia Ii - Focal Programming Language - Sample Session With Focal On A Pdp15
FOCAL15 V6B *01.10 ASK "IN WHAT YEAR WERE YOU BORN?", YEAR *01.20 SET YEAROFFOCAL=YEAR-1969+1 *01.30 IF (YEAROFFOCAL) 02.10,02.10,01.40 ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Gaussian Elimination: Encyclopedia Ii - Gaussian Elimination - Example
Suppose you need to find numbers x, y, and z such that the following three equations are all simultaneously true: 2x + y − z = 8, − ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Univac 1103: Encyclopedia Ii - Univac 1103 - History
Even before the completion of the Atlas (UNIVAC 1101), the Navy asked Engineering Research Associates to design a more powerful machine. ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Cpu Design: Encyclopedia Ii - Cpu Design - History Of General Purpose Cpus
CPU design - 1950s: early designs. Each of the computer designs of the early 1950s was a unique design; there were no upward-compatible...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Cpu Design: Encyclopedia Ii - Cpu Design - History Of General Purpose Cpus
CPU design - 1950s: early designs. Each of the computer designs of the early 1950s was a unique design; there were no upward-compatible...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Context Switch: Encyclopedia Ii - Context Switch - When To Switch?
There are several scenarios where a context switch needs to occur. Context switch - Multitasking. Most commonly, within some scheduling...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Dhrystone: Encyclopedia Ii - Dhrystone - Issues Addressed By Dhrystone
Dhrystone's eventual importance as an indicator of general-purpose ("integer") performance of new computers made it a target for commerci...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Cyrix: Encyclopedia Ii - Cyrix - Products
Its early CPU products included the 486SLC and 486DLC, released in 1992, which, despite their names, were pin-compatible with the 386SX a...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Digital Signal Processor: Encyclopedia Ii - Digital Signal Processor - Digital Signal Processing
Digital signal processing can be done on general-purpose microprocessors. Possible optimizations: Digital signal processor - Data operat...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Constant Folding: Encyclopedia Ii - Constant Folding - Constant Folding
Constant folding is the process of simplifying constant expressions at compile time. Terms in constant expressions are typically simple l...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Division By Zero: Encyclopedia Ii - Division By Zero - Algebraic Interpretation
It is generally regarded among mathematicians that a natural way to interpret division by zero is to first define division in terms of ot...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Coprocessor: Encyclopedia Ii - Coprocessor - Intel Coprocessors
The original IBM PC included a socket for the Intel 8087 floating point coprocessor which was a popular option for people using the PC fo...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Commodore Basic: Encyclopedia Ii - Commodore Basic - Versions And Features
A list of CBM BASIC versions in chronological order, with successively added features: Commodore BASIC - Released versions. V1.0: PET ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Flops: Encyclopedia Ii - Flops - Flops Gpus And Game Consoles
Very high FLOPS figures are often quoted for inexpensive computer video cards and game consoles. For example, the Xbox 360 has been annou...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Trigonometric Function: Encyclopedia Ii - Trigonometric Function - History
The earliest systematic study of trigonometric functions and tabulation of their values was performed by Hipparchus of Nicaea (180-125 BC...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Sinclair Zx81: Encyclopedia Ii - Sinclair Zx81 - Zx81 Video Technical Operation
The technical means used to implement the display, while clever, was rather thoroughly non-standard. The system operated as follows: The ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Half Precision: Encyclopedia Ii - Half Precision - Half Precision Memory Format
Sign bit: 1 Exponent width: 5 Significand precision: 10 The format is written with an implicit integer bit with value 1 unless ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - High Dynamic Range Imaging: Encyclopedia Ii - High Dynamic Range Imaging - Difference Between High Dynamic Range And Traditional Digital Images
Information stored in high dynamic range (HDR) images usually correspond to the physical values of luminance or radiance that can be obse...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Single Precision: Encyclopedia Ii - Single Precision - Single Precision Memory Format
Sign bit: 1 Exponent width: 8 Significand precision: 24 The format is written with an implicit integer bit with value 1 unless ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Haversine Formula: Encyclopedia Ii - Haversine Formula - The Haversine Formula
For two points on a sphere (of radius R) with latitudes φ1 and φ2, latitude separation Δφ = φ1 − φ2, and longitude separation ΔÎ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - History Of Mathematics: Encyclopedia Ii - History Of Mathematics - Mathematics In Prehistory
Long before the earliest written records, there are drawings that indicate a knowledge of mathematics and of measurement of time based on...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Genetic Algorithm: Encyclopedia Ii - Genetic Algorithm - Operation Of A Ga
An individual, or solution to the problem to be solved, is represented by a list of parameters, called chromosome or genome. Chromosomes ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Texas Instruments: Encyclopedia Ii - Texas Instruments - History
Texas Instruments was founded by Cecil H. Green, J. Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott and Patrick E. Haggerty. On December 6, 1941, the four...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Risc: Encyclopedia Ii - Risc - Meanwhile...
While the RISC philosophy was coming into its own, new ideas about how to dramatically increase performance of the CPUs were starting to ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Graphics Processing Unit: Encyclopedia Ii - Graphics Processing Unit - History
Modern GPUs are descended from the monolithic graphic chips of the late 1970s and 1980s. These chips had limited BitBLT support in the fo...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Real Number: Encyclopedia Ii - Real Number - Properties
Real number - Completeness. The main reason for introducing the reals is that the reals contain all limits. More technically, the reals...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Googol: Encyclopedia Ii - Googol - The Shrinking Googol
Back when it was named in 1938, the googol was undeniably large. However, with the invention of fast computers and fast algorithms, compu...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Motorola 68881: Encyclopedia Ii - Motorola 68881 - Overview
The 68020 and 68030 CPUs were designed with the separate 68881 chip in mind. Their instruction sets reserved the "F-line" instructions â€...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Gpgpu: Encyclopedia Ii - Gpgpu - Gpgpu Programming Concepts
GPUs are designed specifically for graphics and thus are very restrictive in terms of operations and programming. Because of their nature...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Genetic Algorithm: Encyclopedia Ii - Genetic Algorithm - Operation Of A Ga
Two elements are required for any problem before a genetic algorithm can be used to search for a solution: First, there must be a method ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Radix Sort: Encyclopedia Ii - Radix Sort - Recursion
A recursively subdividing radix sort algorithm works as follows: take the most significant digit of each key. sort the list of elements ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Rank Linear Algebra: Encyclopedia Ii - Rank Linear Algebra - Alternative Definitions
The maximal number of linearly independent columns of the m-by-n matrix A with entries in the field F is equal to the dimension of the co...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Viswanath's Constant: Encyclopedia Ii - Viswanath's Constant - Definition
The constant is defined as the exponential rate at which the average absolute value of a random Fibonacci sequence increases. A "random F...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Negligible: Encyclopedia Ii - Negligible - Examples In Electronic Engineering
In order for electronic circuit designers to be able to think quickly and clearly through complex problems and complex circuitry, they ar...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - X86: Encyclopedia Ii - X86 - Design
The x86 architecture is a CISC design with variable instruction length. Word sized memory access is allowed to unaligned memory addresses...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Arithmetic Logic Unit: Encyclopedia Ii - Arithmetic Logic Unit - Alu Operations
Most ALUs will perform the following operations: integer arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication) bitwise logic ope...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Flops: Encyclopedia Ii - Flops - The Performance Spectrum
A cheap but modern desktop computer using, for example, a Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 CPU, typically runs at a clock frequency in excess of 2 ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Powerpc: Encyclopedia Ii - Powerpc - History
The history of the PowerPC begins with IBM's 801 prototype chip of John Cocke's RISC ideas in the late '70s. 801-based cores were used in...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Powerpc G4: Encyclopedia Ii - Powerpc G4 - Powerpc 7400
The 7400 (Codename: Max) debuted in late summer of 1999 and was the first processor to carry the G4 moniker. The chip operates at speeds ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Point In Polygon: Encyclopedia Ii - Point In Polygon - Ray Casting Algorithms
One simple way of finding whether the point is inside or outside a simple polygon is to test how many times a ray starting from the point...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Trigonometric Function: Encyclopedia Ii - Trigonometric Function - History
The earliest systematic study of trigonometric functions and tabulation of their values was performed by Hipparchus of Nicaea (180-125 BC...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Plankalkül: Encyclopedia Ii - Plankalkül - Description
Zuse claimed that it was the first high level non-Von Neumann programming language to be designed for a computer. It included assignment ...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Quadruple Precision: Encyclopedia Ii - Quadruple Precision - Quad Precision Memory Format
Sign bit: 1 Exponent width: 15 Significand precision: 113 The format is written with an implicit integer bit with value 1 unles...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Double Precision: Encyclopedia Ii - Double Precision - Double Precision Memory Format
Sign bit: 1 Exponent width: 11 Significand precision: 53 (one implicit) The format is written with an implicit integer bit with va...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Arbitrary-precision Arithmetic: Encyclopedia Ii - Arbitrary-precision Arithmetic - Applications
Arbitrary-precision arithmetic is usually much slower than arithmetic using numbers that fit entirely within processor registers, since t...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Central Processing Unit: Encyclopedia Ii - Central Processing Unit - Design And Implementation
Central processing unit - Integer precision. The way a CPU represents numbers is a design choice that affects the most basic ways in wh...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Basic Programming Language: Encyclopedia Ii - Basic Programming Language - History
BASIC programming language - Background. Prior to the mid-1960s, computers were highly expensive tools used only for special-purpose ta...   » Read the article

Encyclopedia - Bash: Encyclopedia Ii - Bash - Bash Syntax Highlights
Bash's command syntax is a superset of the Bourne shell's command syntax. The definitive specification of Bash's command syntax is the Ba...   » Read the article