68040, PowerPC 601: Integrated FPU Is IEEE 754 Compliant (12/93)

The U.S. federal government specification for personal computer purchases
requires an FPU that is "IEEE 754 compliant, with precision ranging at
least 10E+38 and 10E-38 (8 significant digits) to at least 10E+308 and
10E-308 (16 significant digits)."

Does the 68040's FPU meet this specification? Will PowerPC 601?

Both the MC68040 and the PowerPC 601 microprocessors are fully compliant
with IEEE 754 floating-point standards. The following tables show the
approximate precision ranges for the two processors:

Single-Precision Real Format
----------------------------
Maximum Positive Normalized 3.4 x 10E38
Minimum Positive Normalized 1.2 x 10E-38
Minimum Positive Denormalized 1.4 x 10E-45

Double-Precision Real Format
----------------------------
Maximum Positive Normalized 1.8 x 10E308
Minimum Positive Normalized 2.2 x 10E-308
Minimum Positive Denormalized 4.9 x 10E-324

Extended-Precision Real Format
------------------------------
Maximum Positive Normalized 1.2 x 10E4932
Minimum Positive Normalized 1.7 x 10E-4932
Minimum Positive Denormalized 3.7 x 10E-4951

Published Date: Feb 19, 2012