IEEE 754 Single Precision Simulation

written by Teresa Carrigan

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HOW TO USE IT

The setup button generates a random bit pattern.

The special-bit-patterns switch determines the probability that one of the special bit patterns will be generated when you click the setup button. If the switch is on, then about 75% of the time the pattern generated will be interpreted as either zero, infinity, or NaN ("not a number", used when a program tries to divide by zero or take the square root of a negative number, etc.). If the special-bit-patterns switch is off, then almost all of the time the pattern generated will represent a normal number, but there is still a small chance that one of the special patterns will be generated.

The slow-motion slider is an easy way to adjust the speed of the display. Set it to zero if you want to show the final result as quickly as possible. 0.2 is a good setting for most purposes.

The step button does whichever step of the conversion process comes next. It then stops so you can take notes. This is useful when you are first learning the method.

The go button does the entire conversion, at a speed determined by the slow-motion slider. This is useful when you do not need to take notes between each step, or do not wish to press the step button seven times to get an answer.

The show-again button starts the exact problem from the beginning. You may then click either the step button or the go button to see the same demonstration.

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Applets on this website were written by Teresa Carrigan in 2004, for use in computer science courses at Blackburn College, with the exception of the Fireworks applet. The applets made with NetLogo require Java 1.4.1 or higher to run. The applets made with NetBeans require Java 1.4.2 or higher to run. Applets might not run on Windows 95 or Mac OS 8 or 9. You may obtain the latest Java plugin from Sun's Java site.