ieee 754

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
IEEE Floating Point Standard
754
IEC 559
IEEE 754

   <standard, mathematics> (IEEE 754) "{IEEE} Standard for Binary
   {Floating-Point} Arithmetic (ANSI/IEEE Std 754-1985)" or {IEC}
   559: "Binary floating-point arithmetic for microprocessor
   systems".  A {standard}, used by many {CPUs} and {FPUs}, which
   defines formats for representing floating-point numbers;
   representations of special values (e.g. {infinity}, very small
   values, {NaN}); five {exceptions}, when they occur, and what
   happens when they do occur; four {rounding modes}; and a set
   of floating-point operations that will work identically on any
   conforming system.

   IEEE 754 specifies formats for representing floating-point
   values: single-precision (32-bit) is required,
   double-precision (64-bit) is optional.  The standard also
   mentions that some implementations may include single-extended
   precision (80-bit) and double-extended precision (128-bit)
   formats.

   [On-line document?]

   (2003-06-17)