Digital Engineering

Fall 2024

Lecture 02 - Floating Point Arithmetic

Instructor: Dr. Tarek Abdul Hamid
The World is Not Just Integers
 Programming languages support numbers with fraction
 Called floating-point numbers
 Examples:
3.14159265… (π)
2.71828… (e)
0.000000001 or 1.0 × 10–9 (seconds in a nanosecond)
86,400,000,000,000 or 8.64 × 1013 (nanoseconds in a day)
last number is a large integer that cannot fit in a 32-bit integer
 We use a scientific notation to represent
 Very small numbers (e.g. 1.0 × 10–9)
 Very large numbers (e.g. 8.64 × 1013)
 Scientific notation: ± d . f1f2f3f4 … × 10 ± e1e2e3

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Floating-Point Numbers
 Examples of floating-point numbers in base 10 …
 5.341×103 , 0.05341×105 , –2.013×10–1 , –201.3×10–3
decimal point
 Examples of floating-point numbers in base 2 …
 1.00101×223 , 0.0100101×225 , –1.101101×2–3 , –1101.101×2–6
 Exponents are kept in decimal for clarity binary
point
 The binary number (1101.101)2 = 23+22+20+2–1+2–3 = 13.625
 Floating-point numbers should be normalized
 Exactly one non-zero digit should appear before the point
 In a decimal number, this digit can be from 1 to 9
 In a binary number, this digit should be 1
 Normalized FP Numbers: 5.341×103 and –1.101101×2–3
 NOT Normalized: 0.05341×105 and –1101.101×2–6

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Floating-Point Representation
 A floating-point number is represented by the triple
 S is the Sign bit (0 is positive and 1 is negative)
 Representation is called sign and magnitude
 E is the Exponent field (signed)
 Very large numbers have large positive exponents
 Very small close-to-zero numbers have negative exponents
 More bits in exponent field increases range of values
 F is the Fraction field (fraction after binary point)
 More bits in fraction field improves the precision of FP numbers

S Exponent Fraction

Value of a floating-point number = (-1)S × val(F) × 2val(E)

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IEEE 754 Floating-Point Standard
 Found in virtually every computer invented since 1980
 Simplified porting of floating-point numbers
 Unified the development of floating-point algorithms
 Increased the accuracy of floating-point numbers
 Single Precision Floating Point Numbers (32 bits)
 1-bit sign + 8-bit exponent + 23-bit fraction
S Exponent8 Fraction23

 Double Precision Floating Point Numbers (64 bits)

 1-bit sign + 11-bit exponent + 52-bit fraction
S Exponent11 Fraction52
(continued)
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Normalized Floating Point
Numbers
 For a normalized floating point number (S, E, F)

S E F = f1 f2 f3 f4 …
 Significand is equal to (1.F)2 = (1.f1f2f3f4…)2
 IEEE 754 assumes hidden 1. (not stored) for normalized numbers
 Significand is 1 bit longer than fraction
 Value of a Normalized Floating Point Number is

(–1)S × (1.F)2 × 2val(E)

(–1)S × (1.f1f2f3f4 …)2 × 2val(E)
(–1)S × (1 + f1×2-1 + f2×2-2 + f3×2-3 + f4×2-4 …)2 × 2val(E)
(–1)S is 1 when S is 0 (positive), and –1 when S is 1 (negative)

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Biased Exponent Representation
 How to represent a signed exponent? Choices are …
 Sign + magnitude representation for the exponent
 Two’s complement representation
 Biased representation
 IEEE 754 uses biased representation for the exponent
 Value of exponent = val(E) = E – Bias (Bias is a constant)
 Recall that exponent field is 8 bits for single precision
 E can be in the range 0 to 255
 E = 0 and E = 255 are reserved for special use (discussed later)
 E = 1 to 254 are used for normalized floating point numbers
 Bias = 127 (half of 254), val(E) = E – 127
 val(E=1) = –126, val(E=127) = 0, val(E=254) = 127

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Biased Exponent – Cont’d
 For double precision, exponent field is 11 bits
 E can be in the range 0 to 2047
 E = 0 and E = 2047 are reserved for special use
 E = 1 to 2046 are used for normalized floating point numbers
 Bias = 1023 (half of 2046), val(E) = E – 1023
 val(E=1) = –1022, val(E=1023) = 0, val(E=2046) = 1023
 Value of a Normalized Floating Point Number is

(–1)S × (1.F)2 × 2E – Bias

(–1)S × (1.f1f2f3f4 …)2 × 2E – Bias
(–1)S × (1 + f1×2-1 + f2×2-2 + f3×2-3 + f4×2-4 …)2 × 2E – Bias

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Examples of Single Precision Float
 What is the decimal value of this Single Precision float?
10111110001000000000000000000000
 Solution:
 Sign = 1 is negative
 Exponent = (01111100)2 = 124, E – bias = 124 – 127 = –3
 Significand = (1.0100 … 0)2 = 1 + 2-2 = 1.25 (1. is implicit)
 Value in decimal = –1.25 × 2–3 = –0.15625
 What is the decimal value of?
01000001001001100000000000000000

 Solution: implicit
 Value in decimal = +(1.01001100 … 0)2 × 2130–127 =
(1.01001100 … 0)2 × 23 = (1010.01100 … 0)2 = 10.375
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Examples of Double Precision Float
 What is the decimal value of this Double Precision float ?
01000000010100101010000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000
 Solution:
 Value of exponent = (10000000101)2 – Bias = 1029 – 1023 = 6
 Value of double float = (1.00101010 … 0)2 × 26 (1. is implicit) =
(1001010.10 … 0)2 = 74.5
 What is the decimal value of ?

10111111100010000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000

 Do it yourself! (answer should be –1.5 × 2–7 = –0.01171875)

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Converting FP Decimal to Binary
 Convert –0.8125 to binary in single and double precision
 Solution:
 Fraction bits can be obtained using multiplication by 2
 0.8125 × 2 = 1.625
 0.625 × 2 = 1.25
 0.25 × 2 = 0.5 0.8125 = (0.1101)2 = ½ + ¼ + 1/16 = 13/16
 0.5 × 2 = 1.0
 Stop when fractional part is 0
 Fraction = (0.1101)2 = (1.101)2 × 2 –1 (Normalized)
 Exponent = –1 + Bias = 126 (single precision) and 1022 (double)
Single
10111111010100000000000000000000
Precision
10111111111010100000000000000000 Double
Precision
00000000000000000000000000000000
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Largest Normalized Float
 What is the Largest normalized float?
 Solution for Single Precision:
01111111011111111111111111111111
 Exponent – bias = 254 – 127 = 127 (largest exponent for SP)
 Significand = (1.111 … 1)2 = almost 2
 Value in decimal ≈ 2 × 2127 ≈ 2128 ≈ 3.4028 … × 1038
 Solution for Double Precision:
01111111111011111111111111111111
11111111111111111111111111111111
 Value in decimal ≈ 2 × 21023 ≈ 21024 ≈ 1.79769 … × 10308
 Overflow: exponent is too large to fit in the exponent field

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Smallest Normalized Float
 What is the smallest (in absolute value) normalized float?
 Solution for Single Precision:
00000000100000000000000000000000
 Exponent – bias = 1 – 127 = –126 (smallest exponent for SP)
 Significand = (1.000 … 0)2 = 1
 Value in decimal = 1 × 2–126 = 1.17549 … × 10–38
 Solution for Double Precision:
00000000000100000000000000000000
00000000000000000000000000000000
 Value in decimal = 1 × 2–1022 = 2.22507 … × 10–308
 Underflow: exponent is too small to fit in exponent field

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