Floating point split multiply/add system which has infinite precision

• Main Authors: OLSON; CHRISTOPHER HANS, GOLLA; ROBERT THADDEUS, POTTER; TERENCE MATTHEW, ELLIOTT; TIMOTHY ALAN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 09.03.1999
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; PHYSICS

A method and system for an infinite precision split multiply and add operation which has increased speed. The method and system for providing a split multiply and add of a plurality of operands include a multiplier and an adder means. The multiplier multiplies a first portion of the plurality of operands, thereby providing a product. The adder, which combines the remaining operands and the product, comprise at least one pair of data paths. Each pair of data paths comprises a first data path and a second data path. The first data path comprises a first aligner, a first adder, and a first normalizer capable of shifting a mantissa by a substantially fewer number digits than the aligner. The second data path comprises a second aligner, a second adder, and a second normalizer capable of shifting a mantissa by a substantially larger number of digits than the aligner. Accordingly, the present invention includes split multiply and add data paths which, individually, are faster than a fused multiply and add. In addition, the split multiply and add data paths can preserve the appearance of infinite precision. Consequently, overall system performance is increased.