Title :
Multiply-add fused float point unit with on-fly denormalized number processing
Author :
He, Hu ; Li, Zheng ; Sun, Yihe
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Microelectron., Tsinghua Univ., Beijing
Abstract :
Denormalized numbers are the most difficult type of numbers to implement in float-point units. They are so complex that many designs avoid handling them in hardware. The denormalized number processing cost two much extra clock cycle in software implementation. In this paper, an on-fly floating point denormalized number processing implemented in a multiply-add-fused (MAF) with little extra latency is presented. The denormalized number processing is embedded in a popular MAF data path and fused with the MAF smoothly by representing the denormalized number. The extra latency introduced by the denormalized number processing is cost by the denormalized number detection
Keywords :
clocks; floating point arithmetic; MAF data path; clock cycle; denormalized number processing; multiply-add fused float point unit; Clocks; Costs; Delay; Fuses; Hardware; Helium; Microelectronics; Sun;
Conference_Titel :
Circuits and Systems, 2005. 48th Midwest Symposium on
Conference_Location :
Covington, KY
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-9197-7
DOI :
10.1109/MWSCAS.2005.1594389