Hsiao L Chang

US Patent:

58677224, Feb 2, 1999

Filed:

Jan 28, 1998

Appl. No.:

/015484

Inventors:

Graham B. Whitted - Irvine CA
Hsiao Shih Chang - Orange CA

Assignee:

United Microelectronics Corporation - Hsin Chu
Meridian Semiconductor, Inc. - Irvine CA

International Classification:

G06F 1300

US Classification:

3958001

Abstract:

A floating-point processor and method detect a sticky bit during a floating point operation. The floating-point processor includes a sticky bit predictor circuit, a bit scanner, an exponent arithmetic circuit, and a mantissa arithmetic logic circuit. Input and output circuitry allow the floating-point processor to communicate with another processor. The bit scanner generates sticky significance values corresponding to the operands. When adding two operands, the sticky bit predictor circuit compares the sticky significance value of the smaller operand with an alignment value in order determine whether to set the sticky bit.