Thought Leadership

Article: floating point in embedded systems

In a similar way to blog posts here, I often endeavor to address a specific technical matter, that is pertinent to embedded software, in articles I publish elsewhere. Sometimes the topic is a matter where a developer does not need a detailed knowledge on a day-to-day basis, but an understanding of what is going on “under the hood” may be useful. My latest article on embedded.com is a good example …

Floating point data in embedded software

Although many embedded applications can be implemented using integer arithmetic, there are times when the ability to deal with floating point (real) numbers is required. This article looks at the details of floating point operations, when floating point should and should not be used, some of the pitfalls of its use and how its use may sometimes be avoided.

fp

Of course, a good set of embedded development tools will take care of matters for you, but using such tools “blind” may not always be wise.

Colin Walls

I have over thirty years experience in the electronics industry, largely dedicated to embedded software. A frequent presenter at conferences and seminars and author of numerous technical articles and two books on embedded software, I am a member of the marketing team of the Mentor Graphics Embedded Systems Division, and am based in the UK. Away from work, I have a wide range of interests including photography and trying to point my two daughters in the right direction in life. Learn more about Colin, including his go-to karaoke song and the best parts of being British: http://go.mentor.com/3_acv

More from this author

Leave a Reply

This article first appeared on the Siemens Digital Industries Software blog at https://blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com/embedded-software/2015/09/28/article-floating-point-in-embedded-systems/