Patent ID: 7451172
Filing Date: 2008-11-11
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method, in a data processing system, for processing an instruction having denormal floating point operands, comprising: receiving an instruction having a first operand, a second operand, and a third operand; determining a first shift amount of a mantissa of the second operand based on a number of leading zeros in the mantissa of the second operand; determining a second shift amount of the mantissa of the second operand based on exponents of the first operand, the second operand, and the third operand; comparing the first shift amount to the second shift amount; determining if a negative value of the second shift amount is less than the first shift amount; and setting the third shift amount equal to the second shift amount if the negative value of the second shift amount is less than the first shift amount; setting the third shift amount equal to the first shift amount if the negative value of the second shift amount is not less than the first shift amount; shifting the mantissa of the second operand by the third shift amount; and generating a normalized result for the instruction based on the shifted mantissa of the second operand and a product of the first and third operands, wherein generating a normalized result for the instruction based on the shifted mantissa of the second operand and a product of the first and third operands comprises: