Patent · US Expired

Floating point overflow and sign detection

US6779013B2 · kind B2 · utility

17Cited by
7References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJun 4, 2001
Grant dateAug 17, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 7, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F7/5443
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A multiply-accumulate circuit includes a compressor tree to generate a product with a binary exponent and a mantissa in carry-save format. The product is converted into a number having a three bit exponent and a fifty-seven bit mantissa in carry-save format for accumulation. An adder circuit accumulates the converted products in carry-save format. Because the products being summed are in carry-save format, post-normalization is avoided within the adder feedback loop. The adder operates on floating point number representations having exponents with a least significant bit weight of thirty-two, and exponent comparisons within the adder exponent path are limited in size. Variable shifters are avoided in the adder mantissa path. A single mantissa shift of thirty-two bits is provided by a conditional shifter.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.