System and method for performing floating point operations in a processor that includes fixed point operations

摘要

A computer implemented method for performing floating point operations as part of a processor architecture that also includes fixed point operations is disclosed. The computer implemented method includes providing a group of instructions within the fixed point architecture. A floating point value is split between two programmer visible registers. In a system and method in accordance with the present invention a new form of floating point representation and associated processor operations, including efficient complex number representations and operations are utilized.