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ALL meanings of fixed-point

fixed-point
F f
  • noun Technical meaning of fixed-point (programming)   A number representation scheme where a number, F is represented by an integer I such that F=I*R^-P, where R is the (assumed) radix of the representation and P is the (fixed) number of digits after the radix point. On computers with no floating-point unit, fixed-point calculations are significantly faster than floating-point as all the operations are basically integer operations. Fixed-point representation also has the advantage of having uniform density, i.e., the smallest resolvable difference of the representation is R^-P throughout the representable range, in contrast to floating-point representations. For example, in PL/I, FIXED data has both a precision and a scale-factor (P above). So a number declared as 'FIXED DECIMAL(7,2)' has a precision of seven and a scale-factor of two, indicating five integer and two fractional decimal digits. The smallest difference between numbers will be 0.01. 1
  • adjective fixed-point (computing) Being or using an internal number representation with a fixed number of decimal places (as opposed to floating-point). 0
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