Fw: Overflow and Inf
Ian McIntosh wrote:
> With 754 Decimal Floating Point, the details are different
> but most of the same issues apply.
Actually, NO! The representation of Infinity is precisely one area
where DFP has bits to spare. In principle the format could support
payloads for Inf just as it can for NaN -- because, unlike BFP, the
Inf/Nan distinction is independent of the payload (as is the QNaN
vs SNaN distinction, for that matter).
The current 754-2008 standard assumes a canonical Infinity, with a
payload of zero, and all operations that generate Inf must generate
the canonical one, so the bits cannot be exploited now -- but the
room for functional expansion is there!
Michel.
---Sent: 2010-09-29 19:02:22 UTC