On Fri, 04 Feb 2005 17:47:13 +0100, Johannes Berg
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Fr, 2005-02-04 at 11:10 -0500, Timothy Miller wrote:
> > I've been coding the adder I'm working on to have a true zero.  Logic
> > detects that the exponent is zero (meaning something like 2^-127, I
> > think) and doing the appropriate thing to make it a true zero.
> >
> > But I'm wondering if I can't just do away with that.  2^-127 is so
> > small that any time it gets converted to integer or added to a larger
> > number, it really does become zero.  In fact, I'm not sure I can come
> > up with a situation where not explicitly making that zero does any
> > harm.
> >
> > Comments?
> 
> What if you're adding 0 (2^-127) and 2^-120? That won't be equal to
> 2^-120 since (I guess) you have more than 7 bits of precision. What if
> then, the result is multiplied?
> 
> Well, maybe you should read this mail as: consider what the output is
> used for. If it doesn't go into a multiplier, you should be fine.

Yes, that is a good point.  The problem case is if you're multiplying
a really big number by a really small number.  That could,
theoretically, put you back into range of whatever clamping happens
later and cause a problem.
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