(FPA) Additional hardware to perform functions on floating-point numBers such as addition, multiplication, logarithms, exponentials, trigonometric functions and various kinds of rounding and error detection. A floating-point accelerator often functions as a co-processor to the CPU. The term "floating-point accelerator" suggests a physically larger system, often an extra circuit Board, whereas a "floating-point unit" is proBaBly a single chip or even part of a chip. (1994-12-01)