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Floating Point
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Today: Floating Point

 Background: Fractional binary numbers
 IEEE floating point standard: Definition

 Example and properties

 Rounding, addition, multiplication

 Floating point in C

 Summary

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Fractional binary numbers

 What is 1011.1012?

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Fractional Binary Numbers

2i
2i-1

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••• 2
1

bi bi-1 ••• b2 b1 b0 b-1 b-2 b-3 ••• b-j

1/2
1/4 •••
1/8

 Representation 2-j
▪ Bits to right of “binary point” represent fractional powers of 2
▪ Represents rational number:

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Fractional Binary Numbers: Examples

 Value Representation
5 3/4 101.112
2 7/8 010.1112
63/64 0 0.1111112

 Observations
▪ Divide by 2 by shifting right
▪ Multiply by 2 by shifting left
▪ Numbers of form 0.111111…2 are just below 1.0
▪ 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + … + 1/2i + … ➙ 1.0
▪ Use notation 1.0 – ε

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Representable Numbers
 Limitation
▪ Can only exactly represent numbers of the form x/2k
▪ Other rational numbers have repeating bit representations

 Value Representation
▪ 1/3 0.0101010101[01]…2
▪ 1/5 0.001100110011[0011]…2
▪ 1/10 0.0001100110011[0011]…2

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 Carnegie Mellon

Today: Floating Point

 Background: Fractional binary numbers
 IEEE floating point standard: Definition

 Example and properties

 Rounding, addition, multiplication

 Floating point in C

 Summary

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IEEE Floating Point

 IEEE Standard 754
▪ Established in 1985 as uniform standard for floating point arithmetic
▪Before that, many idiosyncratic formats
▪ Supported by all major CPUs

 Driven by numerical concerns

▪ Nice standards for rounding, overflow, underflow
▪ Hard to make fast in hardware
▪ Numerical analysts predominated over hardware designers in defining
standard

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Floating Point Representation

 Numerical Form:
(–1)s M 2E
▪ Sign bit s determines whether number is negative or positive
▪ Significand M normally a fractional value in range [1.0,2.0).
▪ Exponent E weights value by power of two

 Encoding
▪ MSB s is sign bit s
▪ exp field encodes E (but is not equal to E)
▪ frac field encodes M (but is not equal to M)

s exp frac

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Precisions
 Single precision: 32 bits

s exp frac
1 8-bits 23-bits

 Double precision: 64 bits

s exp frac
1 11-bits 52-bits
 Extended precision: 80 bits (Intel only)

s exp frac
1 15-bits 63 or 64-bits
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Normalized Values
 Condition: exp ≠ 000…0 and exp ≠ 111…1

 Exponent coded as biased value: E = Exp – Bias

▪ Exp: unsigned value exp
▪ Bias = 2k-1 - 1, where k is number of exponent bits
▪ Single precision: 127 (Exp: 1…254, E: -126…127)
▪ Double precision: 1023 (Exp: 1…2046, E: -1022…1023)

 Significand coded with implied leading 1: M = 1.xxx…x2

▪ xxx…x: bits of frac
▪ Minimum when 000…0 (M = 1.0)
▪ Maximum when 111…1 (M = 2.0 – ε)
▪ Get extra leading bit for “free”
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Normalized Encoding Example

 Value: Float F = 15213.0;
▪ 1521310 = 111011011011012
= 1.11011011011012 x 213

 Significand
M = 1.11011011011012
frac = 110110110110100000000002

 Exponent
E = 13
Bias = 127
Exp = 140 = 100011002

 Result:

0 10001100 11011011011010000000000
s exp frac
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Denormalized Values
 Condition: exp = 000…0

 Exponent value: E = –Bias + 1 (instead of E = 0 – Bias)

 Significand coded with implied leading 0: M = 0.xxx…x2
▪ xxx…x: bits of frac
 Cases
▪ exp = 000…0, frac = 000…0
▪ Represents zero value
▪ Note distinct values: +0 and –0 (why?)
▪ exp = 000…0, frac ≠ 000…0
▪ Numbers very close to 0.0
▪ Lose precision as get smaller
▪ Equispaced
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Special Values
 Condition: exp = 111…1

 Case: exp = 111…1, frac = 000…0

▪ Represents value  (infinity)
▪ Operation that overflows
▪ Both positive and negative
▪ E.g., 1.0/0.0 = −1.0/−0.0 = +, 1.0/−0.0 = −

 Case: exp = 111…1, frac ≠ 000…0

▪ Not-a-Number (NaN)
▪ Represents case when no numeric value can be determined
▪ E.g., sqrt(–1),  − ,   0

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Visualization: Floating Point Encodings

− +
−Normalized −Denorm +Denorm +Normalized

NaN NaN
−0 +0

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 Carnegie Mellon

Today: Floating Point

 Background: Fractional binary numbers
 IEEE floating point standard: Definition

 Example and properties

 Rounding, addition, multiplication

 Floating point in C

 Summary

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Tiny Floating Point Example

s exp frac
1 4-bits 3-bits

 8-bit Floating Point Representation

▪ the sign bit is in the most significant bit
▪ the next four bits are the exponent, with a bias of 7
▪ the last three bits are the frac

 Same general form as IEEE Format

▪ normalized, denormalized
▪ representation of 0, NaN, infinity

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Dynamic Range (Positive Only)

s exp frac E Value

0 0000 000 -6 0
0 0000 001 -6 1/8*1/64 = 1/512 closest to zero
Denormalized 0 0000 010 -6 2/8*1/64 = 2/512
numbers …
0 0000 110 -6 6/8*1/64 = 6/512
0 0000 111 -6 7/8*1/64 = 7/512 largest denorm
0 0001 000 -6 8/8*1/64 = 8/512
smallest norm
0 0001 001 -6 9/8*1/64 = 9/512
…
0 0110 110 -1 14/8*1/2 = 14/16
0 0110 111 -1 15/8*1/2 = 15/16 closest to 1 below
Normalized 0 0111 000 0 8/8*1 = 1
numbers 0 0111 001 0 9/8*1 = 9/8
closest to 1 above
0 0111 010 0 10/8*1 = 10/8
…
0 1110 110 7 14/8*128 = 224
0 1110 111 7 15/8*128 = 240 largest norm
0 1111 000 n/a inf

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Distribution of Values
 6-bit IEEE-like format
▪ e = 3 exponent bits
▪ f = 2 fraction bits s exp frac
▪ Bias is 23-1-1 = 3 1 3-bits 2-bits

 Notice how the distribution gets denser toward zero.

8 values

-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
Denormalized Normalized Infinity

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Distribution of Values (close-up view)

 6-bit IEEE-like format
▪ e = 3 exponent bits
▪ f = 2 fraction bits s exp frac
▪ Bias is 3 1 3-bits 2-bits

-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1
Denormalized Normalized Infinity

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Interesting Numbers {single,double}

Description exp frac Numeric Value
 Zero 00…00 00…00 0.0
 Smallest Pos. Denorm. 00…00 00…01 2– {23,52} x 2– {126,1022}
▪ Single ≈ 1.4 x 10–45
▪ Double ≈ 4.9 x 10–324
 Largest Denormalized 00…00 11…11 (1.0 – ε) x 2– {126,1022}
▪ Single ≈ 1.18 x 10–38
▪ Double ≈ 2.2 x 10–308
 Smallest Pos. Normalized 00…01 00…00 1.0 x 2– {126,1022}
▪ Just larger than largest denormalized
 One 01…11 00…00 1.0
 Largest Normalized 11…10 11…11 (2.0 – ε) x 2{127,1023}
▪ Single ≈ 3.4 x 1038
▪ Double ≈ 1.8 x 10308

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Special Properties of Encoding

 FP Zero Same as Integer Zero
▪ All bits = 0

 Can (Almost) Use Unsigned Integer Comparison

▪ Must first compare sign bits
▪ Must consider −0 = 0
▪ NaNs problematic
▪Will be greater than any other values
▪ What should comparison yield?
▪ Otherwise OK
▪ Denorm vs. normalized
▪ Normalized vs. infinity

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 Carnegie Mellon

Today: Floating Point

 Background: Fractional binary numbers
 IEEE floating point standard: Definition

 Example and properties

 Rounding, addition, multiplication

 Floating point in C

 Summary

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Floating Point Operations: Basic Idea

 x +f y = Round(x + y)

 x f y = Round(x  y)

 Basic idea
▪ First compute exact result
▪ Make it fit into desired precision
▪ Possibly overflow if exponent too large
▪ Possibly round to fit into frac

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Rounding
 Rounding Modes (illustrate with $ rounding)

 $1.40 $1.60 $1.50 $2.50 –$1.50

▪ Towards zero $1 $1 $1 $2 –$1
▪ Round down (−) $1 $1 $1 $2 –$2
▪ Round up (+) $2 $2 $2 $3 –$1
▪ Nearest Even (default) $1 $2 $2 $2 –$2

 What are the advantages of the modes?

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Closer Look at Round-To-Even

 Default Rounding Mode
▪ Hard to get any other kind without dropping into assembly
▪ All others are statistically biased
▪ Sum of set of positive numbers will consistently be over- or under-
estimated

 Applying to Other Decimal Places / Bit Positions

▪ When exactly halfway between two possible values
▪ Round so that least significant digit is even
▪ E.g., round to nearest hundredth
1.2349999 1.23 (Less than half way)
1.2350001 1.24 (Greater than half way)
1.2350000 1.24 (Half way—round up)
1.2450000 1.24 (Half way—round down)
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Rounding Binary Numbers

 Binary Fractional Numbers
▪ “Even” when least significant bit is 0
▪ “Half way” when bits to right of rounding position = 100…2

 Examples
▪ Round to nearest 1/4 (2 bits right of binary point)
Value Binary Rounded Action Rounded Value
2 3/32 10.000112 10.002 (<1/2—down) 2
2 3/16 10.001102 10.012 (>1/2—up) 2 1/4
2 7/8 10.111002 11.002 ( 1/2—up) 3
2 5/8 10.101002 10.102 ( 1/2—down) 2 1/2

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FP Multiplication
 (–1)s1 M1 2E1 x (–1)s2 M2 2E2
 Exact Result: (–1)s M 2E
▪ Sign s: s1 ^ s2
▪ Significand M: M1 x M2
▪ Exponent E: E1 + E2

 Fixing
▪ If M ≥ 2, shift M right, increment E
▪ If E out of range, overflow
▪ Round M to fit frac precision

 Implementation
▪ Biggest chore is multiplying significands
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Floating Point Addition

 (–1)s1 M1 2E1 + (-1)s2 M2 2E2
▪Assume E1 > E2
E1–E2
(–1)s1 M1
 Exact Result: (–1)s M 2E
▪Sign s, significand M: + (–1)s2 M2
▪Result of signed align & add
▪Exponent E: E1 (–1)s M

 Fixing
▪If M ≥ 2, shift M right, increment E
▪if M < 1, shift M left k positions, decrement E by k
▪Overflow if E out of range
▪Round M to fit frac precision
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 Carnegie Mellon

Today: Floating Point

 Background: Fractional binary numbers
 IEEE floating point standard: Definition

 Example and properties

 Rounding, addition, multiplication

 Floating point in C

 Summary

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Floating Point in C
 C Guarantees Two Levels
▪float single precision
▪double double precision

 Conversions/Casting
▪Casting between int, float, and double changes bit representation
▪ double/float → int
▪ Truncates fractional part
▪ Like rounding toward zero
▪ Not defined when out of range or NaN: Generally sets to TMin
▪ int → double
▪ Exact conversion, as long as int has ≤ 53 bit word size
▪ int → float
▪ Will round according to rounding mode

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 Carnegie Mellon

Today: Floating Point

 Background: Fractional binary numbers
 IEEE floating point standard: Definition

 Example and properties

 Rounding, addition, multiplication

 Floating point in C

 Summary

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Summary
 IEEE Floating Point has clear mathematical properties
 Represents numbers of form M x 2
E

 One can reason about operations independent of

implementation
▪ As if computed with perfect precision and then rounded
 Not the same as real arithmetic
▪ Violates associativity/distributivity
▪ Makes life difficult for compilers & serious numerical applications
programmers

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