The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 30, 2004
Filed:
Jan. 04, 2000
Jeffrey A. Lohman, Plano, TX (US);
National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
There is disclosed a denormal handling circuit for use in a pipelined floating point unit containing an addition pipe and/or a multiplication pipe. The denormal result handling circuit comprises a denormal condition detection circuit associated with at the addition pipe and/or the multiplication pipe for examining a first operand and a second operand loaded into the addition pipe and/or the multiplication pipe and detecting a potential denormal condition. The denormal condition indicates that a calculated result generated from the first and second operands may be a denormal result. The denormal condition detection circuit, in response to detection of a potential denormal condition, prevents an additional operation from being loaded into the addition pipe and/or the multiplication pipe. The denormal result handling circuit also comprises a complex rounding unit for receiving the calculated result from the addition pipe and/or the multiplication pipe and, in response to the detection of the potential denormal condition, rounding the calculated result.