Before we discuss floating point numbers, lets consider fixed point numbers. The ieee 754 standard defines several different precisions. Fixed point and floatingpoint representations of numbers a xed point representation of a number may be thought to consist of 3 parts. Floating point notation is an alternative to the fixed point notation and is the representation that most modern computers use when storing fractional numbers in memory. Floating point is always interpreted to represent a. Whats the difference between fixedpoint, floatingpoint. Floating point number an overview sciencedirect topics. The fixed point mantissa may be fraction or an integer.
Such representations suffer from limited range andor precision, in the sense that they can. Floating point representation ieee numbers are stored using a kind of scientific notation. The disadvantage of fixed point number, is than of course the loss of range and precision when compare with floating point number representations. With floatingpoint representation, the placement of the decimal point can float relative to the significant digits of the number. Total 15 questions have been asked from number representation and computer arithmetic fixed and floating point topic of digital logic subject in previous gate papers. The second part of designates the position of the decimal or binary point and is called the exponent. For example, a fixed point representation with a uniform decimal point placement convention can represent the numbers 123. Floating point notation is a way to represent very large or very small numbers precisely using scientific notation in binary. Fixedpoint and floatingpoint representations of numbers. Understanding fixed point and floating point number. What is fixed point representation feel free to share this video computer organization and architecture complete video tutorial playlist. The most common misconception about the number representation is that the floating point format is more accurate than the fixed point.