floating-point accelerator

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
floating-point accelerator

   <hardware> (FPA) Additional hardware to perform functions on
   {floating point} numbers such as addition, multiplication,
   {logarithms}, {exponentials}, {trigonometric functions} and
   various kinds of {rounding} and error detection.  A floating
   point accelerator often functions as a {co-processor} to the
   {CPU}.

   The term "floating-point accelerator" suggests a physically
   larger system, often an extra circuit board, whereas a
   "floating-point unit" is probably a single chip or even part
   of a chip.

   (1994-12-01)
    

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