Dynamic range adjusting floating point execution unit
US8412760B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 22, 2008 |
| Grant date | Apr 2, 2013 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 31, 2032 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2207/3828
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A floating point execution unit is capable of selectively repurposing a subset of the significand bits in a floating point value for use as additional exponent bits to dynamically provide an extended range for floating point calculations. A significand field of a floating point operand may be considered to include first and second portions, with the first portion capable of being concatenated with the second portion to represent the significand for a floating point value, or, to provide an extended range, being concatenated with the exponent field of the floating point operand to represent the exponent for a floating point value.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.