Floating Point Topics

These floatingpoint pages were previously generously hosted by SourceForge.net.
They were written in 1997-99 and have been modified only a little since then.

Introduction
If you are new to the concept of floating point numbers click here for a tour of floating point numbers and arithmetic.

Common problems (FAQ)
There are a number of questions about floating point which are regularly asked on the Linux and other newsgroups. Frequently asked questions and answers.

IEEE Floating Point
There are IEEE standards for floating point. There are good points and bad points to these standards on Linux.

An Intel FPU emulator
I am the author and maintainer of an FPU emulator for the Intel 80×86 architecture. This emulator is a (optional) standard part of Linux, and is available for DJGPP and *BSD. I have placed some information on the emulator, including information on bugs, here.

Other Floating Point Software
There is some software available which is useful in connection with floating point computation:
+ paranoia tests floating point arithmetic
Software for the Linux operating system
You can down-load some floating-point related software for Linux here:
+ A package with code for handling the floating point environment on x86 machines based upon the new C standard, and code for handling floating point exceptions.
+ Patches for older versions of gdb to allow it to display and modify the contents of the FPU on x86 machines.
Other useful sites
+ netlib
+ The new floating point extensions for C

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