Method and system for performing a high speed floating point add operation

摘要

A system and method for calculating a floating point add/subtract of a plurality of floating point operands is disclosed. The system comprises at least one pair of data paths. Each pair of data paths comprises a first data path and a second data path. The first data path includes a first aligner, a first adder coupled to the first aligner, and a first normalizer coupled to the first adder. The first normalizer is capable of shifting a mantissa by a substantially smaller number of digits than the first aligner. The second data path comprises control logic, a second aligner coupled to the control logic, a second adder coupled to the second aligner, and a second normalizer coupled to the second adder. The control logic provides a control signal that is responsive to a first predetermined number of digits of each exponent of a pair of exponents. The pair of exponents are the exponents for a pair of inputs to the second data path. The second aligner is responsive to the control signal provided by the control logic. In addition, the second normalizer is capable of shifting a mantissa by a substantially larger number of digits than the second aligner.