IEEE 754 Computer Question?

Question

Indicate Special Cases of IEEE 754. In other words, are there any distinct IEEE 754 representations tht represent the same number? are there any numbers that do not convert to and from IEEE 754 in the usual way?

Answer 1

Three special cases arise:

- if exponent is 0 and mantissa is 0, the number is ±0 (depending on the sign bit)

- if exponent = 2e − 1 and mantissa is 0, the number is ±infinity (again depending on the sign bit), and

- if exponent = 2e − 1 and mantissa is not 0, the number being represented is not a number (NaN).