3 ms·
Processors have had BCD (binary coded decimal) instructions since the earliest 8-bit micros. They usually deal with 0-99 and then you have to add digit by digit
by goalieca 5y ago
Processors have had BCD (binary coded decimal) instructions since the earliest 8-bit micros. They usually deal with 0-99 and then you have to add digit by digit but it can handle carry propagation.
- greenyoda 5y agoMuch earlier than that. The IBM/360 architecture had instructions for doing arithmetic with BCD numbers (packed and zoned decimal formats) in the mid-1960s. I think earlier IBM architectures had them too. COBOL natively supports that datatype, so did PL/I. After all, the biggest customers for mainframes were banks, insurance companies, the IRS, etc. that dealt with large sums of money and needed their accounts to be accurate to the nearest cent. Dealing with very large integer values is a problem that was solved a long, long time ago.