4 ms·
That is merely medieval times. In ancient times, floats were all 60 bits and there was no single precision. See page 3-15 of this https://caltss.computerhisto
by ted_dunning 6mo ago
That is merely medieval times.
In ancient times, floats were all 60 bits and there was no single precision.
See page 3-15 of this https://caltss.computerhistory.org/archive/6400-cdc.pdf https://caltss.computerhistory.org/archive/6400-cdc.pdf
- ant6n 6mo agoThat written document is prehistoric.
- adrian_b 6mo agoBy definition, a document that is written is historic, not prehistoric. Prehistoric information could be preserved by an oral tradition, until it is recorded in some documents (like the Oral Histories at the Computer History Museum site).
- oofabz 6mo agoI see their 60-bit float has the same size exponent (11 bits) as today's doubles. Only the mantissa was smaller, 48 bits instead of 52.