Generating sticky bit in floating point operation using parallel two-way propagation of group enables.

摘要

A method is provided in a floating point processor to detect the "sticky bit" when generated as a result of an alignment operation. The detection of the sticky bit is done in parallel with the alignment operation and uses parallel two-way propagation of group enables. The high-order groups of bits have group enables generated by one method, and the low-order groups of bits have their groups enables generated by another method which does not increase the number of terms to be evaluated as bit position moves to the right. This scheme is significantly faster than conventional schemes that use serial one-way propagation of group enables. <IMAGE>