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Floating Point Numbers (cont)

Special cases:
  • If every bit (except the sign bit) is 0 then we have the number 0. This means we can have positive and negative 0.
  • If every bit of the exponent is 1 and the fraction is 0 then we have infinity (positive or negative)
  • If every bit of the exponent is 1 and the fraction is not 0 then we have NaN (not a number).
  • Underflow: If the exponent has minimum value (all zero), special rules for denormalized values are followed. The exponent value is set to 2-126 and the "invisible" leading bit for the fraction part is no longer used.