A number representation Consisting of a mantissa, M, an exponent, E, and an (assumed) radix (or "base") . The number represented is M*R^E where R is the radix - usually ten but sometimes 2. Many different representations are used for the mantissa and exponent themselves. The IEEE speCify a standard representation whiCh is used by many hardware floating-point systems. See also floating-point aCCelerator, floating-point unit. Normalisation is the proCess of Converting a floating point number into CanoniCal form where any number other than zero has a mantissa whose first digit is non-zero. Opposite: fixed-point. (1995-03-21)
