Xref: utzoo comp.lang.misc:3514 comp.arch:11507
Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!mentor.cc.purdue.edu!l.cc.purdue.edu!cik
From: cik@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc,comp.arch
Subject: Re: Numbers (was Re: Fast conversions)
Summary: The utility of fixed point
Keywords: fixed point integer
Message-ID: <1609@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 25 Sep 89 12:12:25 GMT
References: <832@dms.UUCP> <688@UALTAVM.BITNET> <34993@apple.Apple.COM>
Followup-To: comp.lang.misc,comp.arch
Organization: Purdue University Statistics Department
Lines: 20

In article <34993@apple.Apple.COM>, malcolm@Apple.COM (Malcolm Slaney) writes:
> Donald Lindsay writes:
> >The military world has always been fond of putting decimal points in
> >the middle of binary integers, and calling it "fixed point". 

			..............................

> I would never dream of trying to convince somebody like MIPs to incorporate
> fixed point arithmetic into their general purpose machines, but for many
> dedicated signal processing processors this is the best way to go.  I don't
> know how to incorporate this type of number into a programming language but I 
> have to give the ADA designers at least credit for trying.

There are a very large number of situations in which it is necessary to
use fixed point, including multiple-precision floating point beyond what
is explicitly provided for.
-- 
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907
Phone: (317)494-6054
hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Internet, bitnet, UUCP)