Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watmath.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!atbowler From: atbowler@watmath.UUCP (Alan T. Bowler [SDG]) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: More Naughty Bits Message-ID: <16202@watmath.UUCP> Date: Fri, 16-Aug-85 22:05:18 EDT Article-I.D.: watmath.16202 Posted: Fri Aug 16 22:05:18 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 05:26:47 EDT References: <575@brl-tgr.ARPA> <132@rtp47.UUCP> <387@uwmcsd1.UUCP> Reply-To: atbowler@watmath.UUCP (Alan T. Bowler [SDG]) Distribution: net Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 5 Summary: On the Honeywell large machines (including Multics). A proper floating point zero (i.e. one that is normalized) is NOT all zero bits. A word of all zero bits is taken as zero by the floating hardware, but it is not properly normalized, and may cause problems in some calculations.