In its external representation, the 8087 omitted the leading one for the reason you suggest; it is redundant. Your suggestion could apply to the ROM; they coul

In its external representation, the 8087 omitted the leading one for the reason you suggest; it is redundant. Your suggestion could apply to the ROM; they could have hard-coded the first bit to 1, saving a row in the ROM. I think they could have avoided a few transistors by doing this.