Floating-point processor with operating mode having improved...

Details Floating-point processor with operating mode having improved... Floating-point processor with operating mode having improved...

2006-02-07

2006-02-07

Chaki, Kakali (Department: 2124)

Electrical computers: arithmetic processing and calculating

Electrical digital calculating computer

Particular function performed

C708S497000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06996596

ABSTRACT:
Floating-point units (FPUs) and processors having a “flush-to-nearest” operating mode that provides improved accuracy over a conventional “flush-to-zero” mode. The FPU or processor includes an operand processing section and an operand flush section. For each floating-point operation, the operand processing section receives and processes one or more input operands to provide a preliminary result. The operand flush section determines whether the preliminary result falls within one of a number of ranges of values and sets the preliminary result to one of a number of set values if the preliminary result falls within one of the ranges. In a specific implementation, a first range of values is defined to include values greater than zero and less than half of a minimum normalized number (i.e., 0<|y|<+amin/2), a second range of values is defined to include values equal to or greater than +amin/2 and less than +an, (i.e., amin/2≦|y|<amin), and the preliminary result is set to zero if it falls within the first range and to +aminor −amin(depending on the sign bit) if it falls within the second range.

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