From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,7cda96e9413b780c X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-07-24 08:18:36 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed1.cidera.com!Cidera!cyclone.socal.rr.com!cyclone3.kc.rr.com!news3.kc.rr.com!twister.socal.rr.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3D3EC569.613EE332@san.rr.com> From: Darren New X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Floating Decimal Package/Library? References: <3D345DB3.5080609@cogeco.ca> <3D3571E4.6060503@cogeco.ca> <3D3C963D.5020304@attbi.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 15:18:36 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.74.216.166 X-Complaints-To: abuse@rr.com X-Trace: twister.socal.rr.com 1027523916 66.74.216.166 (Wed, 24 Jul 2002 08:18:36 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 08:18:36 PDT Organization: RoadRunner - West Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:27362 Date: 2002-07-24T15:18:36+00:00 List-Id: Marin David Condic wrote: > > More out of curiosity than anything else: Some hardware supports Binary > Coded Decimal (BCD) which was there to support Cobol-like numeric values. > (Its been a while, but IIRC, the MC680x0 supported it.) The 6502 let you add two BCD digits using a binary add, then had an instruction (adjust decimal?) that would look at the half-carry flag and convert it back to BCD with the appropriate carry bit set. The Sigma-9/Xerox-560 had two optional units, the "scientific unit" (which was a floating point coprocessor) and the "business unit" (which was a BCD processor), either of which would be emulated if not present. The "business unit" had built in instructions for things like COBOL's edit-byte-string. Mmmmm... Text_IO.Editing in hardware! -- Darren New San Diego, CA, USA (PST). Cryptokeys on demand. ** http://home.san.rr.com/dnew/DNResume.html ** ** http://images.fbrtech.com/dnew/ ** Things to be thankful for, #37: No sausage was served at the Last Supper.