Kathleen P Harrington

Title: Innovations by Kathleen P. Harrington

Introduction

Kathleen P. Harrington is a notable inventor based in Groton, MA (US). She has made significant contributions to the field of floating-point arithmetic through her innovative patent. Her work exemplifies the intersection of technology and engineering, showcasing her expertise in developing efficient computational methods.

Latest Patents

Kathleen P. Harrington holds a patent for an "Apparatus and method for floating point normalization prediction." This invention is directed to an apparatus and method for predicting the number of bits that must be taken into account to normalize the result of a floating point addition or subtraction. The apparatus employs a low precision floating point adder/subtractor, a priority encoder that determines the position of the most significant non-zero bit to generate the normalization amount, and preround logic which pre-shifts a rounding bit in the opposite direction of normalization. The method operates in parallel with a full precision floating point adder, eliminating the need for a full-precision floating point normalization calculation and rounding computation in most circumstances. This technique results in a significant enhancement of performance in floating-point addition and subtraction.

Career Highlights

Kathleen has worked at Digital Equipment Corporation, where she has been able to apply her innovative ideas in a practical setting. Her contributions have not only advanced her career but have also impacted the field of computing significantly.

Collaborations

Kathleen has collaborated with John H. Zurawski, further enhancing her work and contributing to the development of advanced computational methods.

Conclusion

Kathleen P. Harrington's innovative work in floating-point normalization prediction demonstrates her significant impact on technology and engineering. Her contributions continue to influence the efficiency of computational methods in the industry.