Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!decwrl!hplabs!hplabsb!dsmith
From: dsmith@hplabsb.UUCP (David Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: DEC to HP REALS
Message-ID: <4496@hplabsb.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jan 88 17:03:14 GMT
References: <400008@weycord.WEYCO.COM>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
Lines: 20

In article <400008@weycord.WEYCO.COM>, jeffh@weycord.WEYCO.COM writes:
> * DEC REAL FORMAT:
> *
> * ....SIGN BIT
> * . .....eight EXPONENT BITS
> * . .         .....TWELVE MANTISSA BITS
> * . .         .          ... ALWAYS ZERO
> * v v         v          v
> * X/MMMMMMM|S/XXXXXXX|00000000|MMMMM000 <- - - - -  32 BITS TOTAL
> *
> *  NOTE:   1)  NEGATIVE NUMBERS ARE 2's COMPLEMENTED
> *          2)  .5<= MANTISSA <1.0
> *          3)  EXPONENT IS BIASED BY 128

Dec Vax/Pdp-11 32 bit float format is like HP's (IEEE's), exept for
byte ordering.  There are no "always zero" bits.  Negative numbers
are not 2's complemented, but have their sign bits set.  The
high-order (2^-1) mantissa bit is not stored.

			David Smith