Floating-point representation: IEEE Standard

• Basic choices

  • A single precision number must fit into 1 word (4 bytes, 32 bits)
  • A double precision number must fit into 2 words
  • The base for the exponent is 2
  • There should be approximately as many positive and negative exponents

• Additional criteria

  • The mantissa will be represented in sign and magnitude form
  • Numbers will be normalized

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