Section 21.3: Limitations (Frame 2)                     [prev][home][next]

Looking at the number line again, magnitude limitations place a boundary on how far to the left or right numbers can go, while the precision determines how far apart the representable numbers are from each other. Fig. 21.3.1 shows the regions of the real number line that can be represented based on the exponent.


Fig. 21.3.1: The number of bits in the exponent limits the range of magnitudes
that can be represented; only the shaded regions and 0 are representable