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From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Misc: Applications of small floating point formats.
Date: Sat, 3 Aug 2024 21:09:43 -0000 (UTC)
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On Sat, 3 Aug 2024 11:40:23 +0200, Terje Mathisen wrote:

> MitchAlsup1 wrote:
>
>> So, you have identified the problem:: 8-bits contains insufficient
>> exponent and fraction widths to be considered standard format. Thus, in
>> order to utilize 8-bit FP one needs several incarnations.
>> This just points back at the problem:: FP needs at least 10 bits.
> 
> I agree that fp10 is probably the shortest sane/useful version, but
> 1:3:4 does in fact contain enough exponent and mantissa bits to be
> considered an ieee754 format.

The AI folks are quite happy with 8-bit floats for many applications. In 
fact, they prefer more exponent bits and fewer in the mantissa.