Abstract:
The first and second n-bit significands are multiplied producing a pair of 2n-bit vectors, and half adder logic produces a corresponding plurality of carry and sum bits. A product exponent is checked for correspondence with a predetermined exponent value. A sum operation generates a first result equivalent to the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors. First adder logic uses corresponding m carry and sum bits, the least significant of them carry bits being replaced with the increment value prior to the first adder logic performing the first sum operation. Second adder logic performs a second sum operation and uses the corresponding m−1 carry and sum bits replacing the least significant m−1 carry bits with the rounding increment value prior to the second adder logic second sum operation. The n-bit result is derived from either the first rounded result, the second rounded result or a predetermined result value.

Description:
This application is a Continuation-In-Part application of U.S. Ser. No. 10/999,154 filed 30 Nov. 2004. The entire contents of this application is incorporated herein by reference. 

   BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
   1. Field of the Invention 
   The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus and method for performing floating point multiplication, and in particular to a data processing apparatus and method for multiplying first and second n-bit significands of first and second floating point operands to produce an n-bit result. 
   2. Description of the Prior Art 
   A floating point number in a defined normal range can be expressed as follows:
 
±1.x*2 y  
 
   where: x=fraction
         1.x=significand (also known as the mantissa)   y=exponent       

   Floating-point multiplication consists of several steps:
     1. Evaluating the input operands for special cases (in particular NaNs (Not-a-Number cases), infinities, zeros, and in some implementations subnormals). If a special case is detected, other processing may be required in place of the sequence below.   2. Adding the exponents. The product exponent is the sum of the multiplicand and multiplier exponents. The product exponent is checked for out of range conditions. If the exponent is out of range, a resulted is forced, and the sequence of steps below is not necessary.   3. The fractions are converted to significands. If the input operand was normal (as opposed to NaN, infinity, zero or subnormal) a leading ‘1’ is prepended to the fraction to make the significand. If the input operand is subnormal, a ‘0’ is prepended instead. Note that in alternative systems the subnormal operand may instead be normalized in an operand space larger than the input precision. For example, single-precision numbers have 8 bits of exponent, but an internal precision may choose to have 9 or more bits for the exponent, allowing single-precision subnormal operands to be normalized in such a system.   4. The n-bit significands are multiplied to produce a redundant set of 2n-bit vectors representing the 2n-bit product. This is typically done in an array of small adders and compressors.   5. The two 2n-bit vectors are summed to form a non-redundant final product of 2n-bits in length.   6. This final product is evaluated for rounding. The final result may only be n-bits. The lower bits contribute only to the rounding computation. If the computed product has the most significant bit set it is said to have ‘overflowed’ the significand. In this case, as illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the upper n-bits representing the product begin with the most significant bit, whilst the lower n-bits are used in the rounding computation. If the most significant bit of the product is not set, the resulting product (represented by bits 2n−2 to n−1) is considered ‘normal’ and the n−1 least significant bits (bits  0  to n−2) contribute to rounding.   7. The n-bits of the final product are selected. If the computed product has overflowed, bits [2n−1:n] are selected, whilst if the computed product is normal, bits [2n−2:n−1] are selected. The rounding bits corresponding to the normal or overflowed product are evaluated and a decision is made as to whether it is necessary to increment the final product.   8. If the final n-bit product is to be incremented, a ‘1’ is added to the final product at the least significant point (i.e. bit  0  of the final product).   9. The rounded final product is evaluated for overflow. This condition occurs when the final product was composed of all ones, and the rounding increment caused the final product to generate a carry into bit n (i.e. a bit position immediately to the left of the most significant bit (bit n−1) of the final product), effectively overflowing the n-bits of the result, and requiring a single bit shift right and an increment of the exponent.   

   The above series of steps are inherently serial, but can be parallelised at several points. For example, it would be desirable to seek to perform the rounding evaluation and any necessary rounding increment without having to first wait for the final product to be produced. 
   U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,942-B1 describes a technique for rounding floating point results in a digital processing system. The apparatus accepts two floating point numbers as operands in order to perform addition, and includes a rounding adder circuit which can accept the operands and a rounding increment bit at various bit positions. The circuit uses full adders at required bit positions to accommodate a bit from each operand and the rounding bit. Since the proper position in which the rounding bit should be injected into the addition may be unknown at the start, respective low and high increment bit addition circuits are provided to compute a result for both the low and a high increment rounding bit condition. The final result is selected based upon the most significant bit of the low increment rounding bit result. The low and high increment bit addition circuits can share a high order bit addition circuit for those high order bits where a rounding increment is not required, with this single high order bit addition circuit including half adders coupled in sequence, with one half adder per high order bit position of the first and second operands. 
   Hence, it can be seen that U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,942-B1 teaches a technique which enables the rounding process to be performed before the final product is produced, but in order to do this requires the use of full adders (i.e. adders that take three input bits and produce at their output a carry and a sum bit) at any bit positions where a rounding bit is to be injected. 
   Full adders typically take twice as long to generate output carry and sum bits as do half adders. As there is a general desire to perform data processing operations more and more quickly, this tends to lead to a reduction in the clock period (also referred to herein as the cycle time) within the data processing apparatus. As the cycle time reduces, the delays incurred through the use of the full adders described above are likely to become unacceptable. 
   In addition to it being desirable to seek to perform the rounding evaluation and any necessary rounding increment without having to first wait for the final product to be produced, it would also be desirable in such a system to provide an efficient technique for detecting results that are in the underflow range so as to enable a predetermined result to be returned. 
   The underflow range is divided into two sub-ranges. The first sub-range is immediately below the minimum normal range and is referred to as the “subnormal” range. In this range a subnormal result is returned or a predetermined result value is returned. As an example the predetermined result value may, dependent on the rounding mode employed, be a minimum normal positive result, a minimum normal negative result or a signed zero value, When the returned result is a signed zero rather than a subnormal result the mode of operation of the processor may be referred to as a “flush-to-zero” or “abrupt underflow” mode. In such a mode all values which are below the minimum normal threshold for the target precision and which are not zero result in a signed zero value returned, and optionally a flag signalling this event is set. 
   The cost of implementation of processing subnormal operands and returning subnormal results is not insignificant. Many processors utilize software support to handle subnormal operands and process underflow or potential underflow conditions. Also, many applications do not require or could not make use of the extended range the subnormal range provides. In graphics applications single-precision floating point values and computations are more than sufficient and the range of data involved is much reduced from even the normal range. In typical graphics processing the “flush-to-zero” mode is sufficiently adequate to make subnormal handling in hardware too costly and undesirable. Hence, for this reason it is often the case that the flush-to-zero mode is adopted. 
   In the second sub-range, also referred to as the “catastrophic underflow” range the computed value is not zero and is greater than the negative minimum subnormal value and less than the positive minimum subnormal value, and a signed zero is returned for all modes. 
     FIG. 6  illustrates these ranges in pictorial form for positive values (this figure can be mirrored for the negative part of the axis). For the single-precision and double-precision formats (as defined in the “IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic”, ANSI-IEEE Std 754-1985, The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc., New York, N.Y. 10017, hereafter referred to as the IEEE 754 standard) the value of the floating point numbers at the thresholds are as shown in Table 1 below: 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
               TABLE 1 
             
             
                 
             
             
               Threshold 
               Single-precision 
               Double-precision 
             
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               Minimum subnormal 
               0x00000001 
               0x00000000_00000001 
             
             
                 
               (1.4 × 10 −45 ) 
               (4.8 × 10 −324 ) 
             
             
               Minimum normal 
               0x00800000 
               0x00100000_00000000 
             
             
                 
               (1.2 × 10 −38 ) 
               (2.2 × 10 −308 ) 
             
             
               Maximum normal 
               0x7f7fffff 
               0x7fefffff_ffffffff 
             
             
                 
               (3.4 × 10 38 ) 
               (1.8 × 10 308 ) 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   The IEEE 754 standard allowed for detection of an underflow case in the result to be done before or after rounding, and many processors opted to make the determination before rounding. The decision to determine whether a result value is in the subnormal range, and hence to return a predetermined result value such as a signed zero, is often made before rounding as well. If an approach is to be taken where the rounding takes place without waiting for the final result to be produced, detection of a value in the subnormal or catastrophic underflow range becomes more complicated, particularly when near the subnormal/normal boundary, since the unrounded result value is not computed. 
   Hence it would be desirable to provide a data processing apparatus and method which, when performed floating point multiplication, enables the rounding evaluation and any necessary rounding increment to be performed without having to first wait for the final product to be produced, whilst also providing an efficient technique for detecting results that are in the underflow range, in situations where such determination would be difficult and/or prohibitively costly earlier in the flow of steps. 
   SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
   Viewed from a first aspect, the present invention provides a data processing apparatus for multiplying first and second n-bit significands of first and second floating point operands to produce an n-bit result, the data processing apparatus comprising: multiplier logic operable to multiply the first and second n-bit significands to produce a pair of 2n-bit vectors; half adder logic operable to receive a plurality of most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors and to produce a corresponding plurality of carry and sum bits representing those plurality of most significant bits; exponent determination logic to determine from the first and second floating point operands a product exponent and to determine if that product exponent corresponds to a predetermined exponent value; first adder logic operable to perform a first sum operation in order to generate a first result equivalent to the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors with an increment value injected at a first predetermined rounding position appropriate for a non-overflow condition, the increment value being either a rounding increment value such that the first result produced is a first rounded result or a logic zero value such that the first result produced is a first unrounded result, the rounding increment value being used unless the exponent determination logic has determined that the product exponent corresponds to the predetermined exponent value in which case the logic zero value is used as the increment value, the first adder logic being operable to use as the m most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors the corresponding m carry and sum bits, the least significant of the m carry bits being replaced with the increment value prior to the first adder logic performing the first sum operation; second adder logic operable to perform a second sum operation in order to generate a second rounded result equivalent to the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors with a rounding increment value injected at a second predetermined rounding position appropriate for an overflow condition, the second adder logic being operable to use as the m−1 most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors the corresponding m−1 carry and sum bits, the least significant of the m−1 carry bits being replaced with the rounding increment value prior to the second adder logic performing the second sum operation; and selector logic operable to derive the n-bit result from either the first rounded result, the second rounded result or a predetermined result value. 
   In accordance with the present invention, half adder logic is provided to produce a plurality of carry and sum bits representing a corresponding plurality of most significant bits of a pair of 2n-bit vectors produced by multiplier logic. First adder logic then performs a first sum operation using m carry and sum bits produced by the half adder logic as the m most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors to be summed. The remaining bits are taken directly from the 2n-bit vectors. By taking advantage of the half adder form, the least significant of the m carry bits can be replaced with a rounding increment value prior to the first adder logic performing the first sum operation, so that the first sum operation generates a first rounded result equivalent to the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors with a rounding increment injected at a first predetermined rounding position appropriate for a non-overflow condition. 
   Such a rounding increment value is inserted in the first sum operation performed by the first adder logic unless the product exponent has been determined to correspond to a predetermined exponent value, in which case a logic zero value is inserted instead of the rounding increment value. In this latter case, the first adder logic when performing the first sum operation produces an unrounded result. 
   Second adder logic is provided to perform a second sum operation, which is similar to the first sum operation, but with the rounding increment injected at a second predetermined rounding position appropriate for an overflow condition. With this in mind, the second adder logic uses as the m−1 most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors the corresponding m−1 carry and sum bits, and again the remaining bits are provided directly by the 2n-bit vectors. The least significant of the m−1 carry bits is then replaced with the rounding increment value prior to the second sum operation being performed. 
   Assuming the product exponent does not correspond to the predetermined exponent value, the result of the above first and second sum operations is that a first rounded result appropriate for a non-overflow condition and a second rounded result appropriate for an overflow condition are produced, and the required n-bit result can then be derived from either the first rounded result or the second rounded result. If however the product exponent is determined to correspond to the predetermined exponent value, then the first adder logic will have produced an unrounded result appropriate for a non-overflow condition, and the second adder logic will have produced a rounded result appropriate for an overflow condition. 
   The predetermined exponent value is chosen to be that exponent value which is one below the minimum exponent for a floating point number within the normal range. If the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors results in an overflow condition, then this would result in the product, once normalised, being back within the normal range, whereas if the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors results in a non-overflow condition, then the end product is still within the subnormal range, and a predetermined result value should be returned. 
   Since when the product exponent is determined to have the predetermined exponent value the first adder logic is arranged to perform the first sum operation with an increment value set to zero, then a determination can be made as to whether the unrounded result value has overflowed or not by looking at the most significant bit of the result produced by the first adder logic. If the most significant bit is set, this indicates the overflow condition and in that scenario the output produced by the second adder logic, namely the second rounded result, is the correct result to output as the n-bit result. Conversely, if the most significant bit is not set, then this indicates that the result is in the subnormal range, and accordingly it is appropriate to output the predetermined result value. 
   Hence, in accordance with the present invention, a very efficient technique is provided for incorporating the necessary rounding prior to the summation of the 2n-bit vectors, with the properties of the half adder form being exploited to enable a rounding increment value to be injected without the requirement for a full adder. Further, the invention enables an efficient detection of a result which is in the subnormal range before rounding, in situations where such determination would be difficult and/or prohibitively costly earlier in the flow of steps (i.e. where the computed result exponent is immediately below the minimum normal exponent). 
   The selector logic may be arranged in a variety of ways. However, in one embodiment, the selector logic includes overflow detection logic operable to detect the presence of the overflow condition with reference to the most significant bit of the first result, if the overflow condition exists the selector logic being operable to derive the n-bit result from the second rounded result, and if the overflow condition does not exist the selector logic being operable to derive the n-bit result from the first result unless the exponent determination logic has determined that the product exponent corresponds to the predetermined exponent value, in which case the selector logic is operable to produce as the n-bit result the predetermined result value. In particular, if the most significant bit of the first result is set, this will indicate the presence of the overflow condition, whereas if the most significant bit of the first result is not set, this will indicate that the overflow condition does not exist. As mentioned earlier, if the product exponent corresponds to the predetermined exponent value and the non-overflow condition exists, then the result is in the subnormal range and the predetermined result value should be output. 
   As mentioned earlier, in one embodiment the predetermined exponent value is the exponent value 1 less that the minimum exponent for a normal floating point value. 
   The predetermined result value may take a variety of forms, dependent on the rounding mode employed. For example, in a directed rounding mode, such as round to positive infinity, then depending on the sign of the subnormal value, it may be appropriate to output as the predetermined result value either a zero value or a positive minimum normal value (and similarly for round to minus infinity the predetermined result value may be either a negative minimum normal value or a zero value). When employing a round-to-nearest rounding mode, then the data processing apparatus can be arranged to operate in accordance with a flush-to-zero mode, and in such situations the predetermined result value is a zero value. More particularly, the predetermined result value is a signed zero value. 
   A number of different rounding modes exist identifying how values should be rounded in particular situations. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the n-bit result is required to be rounded in accordance with the round-to-nearest rounding mode, the selector logic including correction logic operable to detect a situation where the n-bit result derived from the first rounded result or the second rounded result does not conform to the round-to-nearest rounding mode and to correct the n-bit result by manipulation of one or more bits of the n-bit result. In accordance with the round-to-nearest rounding mode, also referred to as the “Round-to-Nearest-Even” (RNE) rounding mode, values that are more than half way between two representable results are rounded up, whilst values that are less than half way between two representable results are rounded down (or truncated). Values that are exactly half way between two representable results are rounded to a final result that has a least significant fraction bit equal to zero, thus making the result even. 
   In one embodiment of the present invention, it has been found that the correction logic merely needs to reset the least significant bit of the n-bit result to zero if the derived n-bit result does not conform to the round-to-nearest rounding mode. 
   In one embodiment, the first predetermined rounding position is a guard bit position assuming the non-overflow condition exists and the second predetermined rounding position is a guard bit position assuming the overflow condition exists. The guard bit position is the bit position immediately to the right of the least significant bit of the n-bit result. Hence, the insertion of the rounding increment value at the guard bit position results in an addition of ½ ULP (Unit in the Lowest Place) to the result. 
   When determining whether rounding is appropriate, it is usual to assess all of the bits of the 2n-bit result to the right of the guard bit position to determine whether any of those bits are set. If any of those bits are set, then a sticky bit value is set, whereas if all of the bits are not set, then the sticky bit value is not set. The sticky bit can then be used along with the least significant bit and the guard bit of the result to determine whether rounding should take place or not. However, if it is necessary to await the production of the 2n-bit final result before calculating the sticky bit value, then it is clear that a final determination as to whether rounding should take place or not will be delayed awaiting the generation of the sticky bit. In one embodiment of the present invention, this delay is overcome through the provision of sticky bit generation logic operable to determine from a number of least significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors a first sticky value associated with the first rounded result and a second sticky value associated with the second rounded result. In accordance with this embodiment, the first and second sticky values are produced using the pair of 2n-bit vectors, hence avoiding the need to await for the 2n-bit result to be produced. The sticky bit generation logic takes advantage of properties of the half adder form in order to determine whether the first and second sticky values should be set or not. 
   In one embodiment, the first and second sticky values produced by the sticky bit generation logic are then input to the correction logic used to correct the n-bit result if non-compliance with the round-to-nearest rounding mode is detected. 
   In one particular embodiment, the situation where the n-bit result does not conform to the round-to-nearest rounding mode is determined to occur when the least significant bit of the n-bit result is set but the guard bit position of the rounded result from which the n-bit result is derived and the associated sticky value are both not set, upon determination of the occurrence of said situation, the correction logic being operable to cause the least significant bit of the n-bit result to be cleared in order to correct the n-bit result. This situation represents the “tie case” where the equivalent unrounded result would have been half way between two representable values and in that situation compliance with the RNE rounding mode requires that the value is rounded to an even value. Accordingly, the least significant bit should be a logic zero value rather than a logic one value. In this particular situation, the error introduced by the forced rounding increment value at the guard position does not propagate beyond the least significant bit position, and accordingly the result can be corrected merely by resetting the least significant bit position to a zero. 
   The present invention may be applied to any format of floating point operands, for example single precision or double precision floating point operands. However, in one embodiment, the first and second floating point operands are single precision floating point operands, n is 24 and m is 26. 
   Hence, in this embodiment, the first adder logic uses as the 26 most significant bits of the 2n-bit vectors the corresponding 26 most significant carry and sum values produced by the half adder logic. Similarly, the second adder logic uses as the 25 most significant bits of the 2n-bit vectors the 25 most significant bits of the carry and sum values produced by the half adder logic. However, whilst in one embodiment of the present invention the most significant bit of the first rounded result needs to be produced in order to assess whether the overflow condition exists or not, the most significant bit of the second rounded result need not be produced, since the second rounded result will only be used if the overflow condition exists, and in that instance it is known that the most significant bit will have a logic one value. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the second adder logic ignores the most significant carry bit and sum bit when performing the second sum operation. Hence, whilst the second adder logic still uses as the 25 most significant bits of the 2n-bit vectors the 25 most significant bits of the carry and sum vectors produced by the half adder logic, it actually makes no use of the most significant carry bit and most significant sum bit when performing the second sum operation. 
   Viewed from a second aspect, the present invention provides a data processing apparatus for multiplying first and second n-bit significands of first and second floating point operands to produce an n-bit result, the data processing apparatus comprising: multiplier means for multiplying the first and second n-bit significands to produce a pair of 2n-bit vectors; half adder means for receiving a plurality of most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors and producing a corresponding plurality of carry and sum bits representing those plurality of most significant bits; exponent determination means for determining from the first and second floating point operands a product exponent and determining if that product exponent corresponds to a predetermined exponent value; first adder means for performing a first sum operation in order to generate a first result equivalent to the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors with an increment value injected at a first predetermined rounding position appropriate for a non-overflow condition, the increment value being either a rounding increment value such that the first result produced is a first rounded result or a logic zero value such that the first result produced is a first unrounded result, the rounding increment value being used unless the exponent determination means has determined that the product exponent corresponds to the predetermined exponent value in which case the logic zero value is used as the increment value, the first adder means being arranged to use as the m most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors the corresponding m carry and sum bits, the least significant of the m carry bits being replaced with the increment value prior to the first adder means performing the first sum operation; second adder means for performing a second sum operation in order to generate a second rounded result equivalent to the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors with a rounding increment value injected at a second predetermined rounding position appropriate for an overflow condition, the second adder means being arranged to use as the m−1 most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors the corresponding m−1 carry and sum bits, the least significant of the m−1 carry bits being replaced with the rounding increment value prior to the second adder means performing the second sum operation; and selector means for deriving the n-bit result from either the first rounded result, the second rounded result or a predetermined result value. 
   Viewed from a third aspect, the present invention provides a method of operating a data processing apparatus to multiply first and second n-bit significands of first and second floating point operands to produce an n-bit result, the method comprising the steps of: multiplying the first and second n-bit significands to produce a pair of 2n-bit vectors; employing half adder logic to produce from a plurality of most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors a corresponding plurality of carry and sum bits representing those plurality of most significant bits; determining from the first and second floating point operands a product exponent and determining if that product exponent corresponds to a predetermined exponent value; performing a first sum operation in order to generate a first result equivalent to the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors with an increment value injected at a first predetermined rounding position appropriate for a non-overflow condition, the increment value being either a rounding increment value such that the first result produced is a first rounded result or a logic zero value such that the first result produced is a first unrounded result, the rounding increment value being used unless the product exponent corresponds to the predetermined exponent value in which case the logic zero value is used as the increment value, the first sum operation using as the m most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors the corresponding m carry and sum bits, the least significant of the m carry bits being replaced with the increment value prior to performing the first sum operation; performing a second sum operation in order to generate a second rounded result equivalent to the addition of the pair of 2n-bit vectors with a rounding increment value injected at a second predetermined rounding position appropriate for an overflow condition, the second sum operation using as the m−1 most significant bits of the pair of 2n-bit vectors the corresponding m−1 carry and sum bits, the least significant of the m−1 carry bits being replaced with the rounding increment value prior to performing the second sum operation; and deriving the n-bit result from either the first rounded result, the second rounded result or a predetermined result value. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention will be described further, by way of example only, with reference to an embodiment thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: 
       FIG. 1  is a diagram schematically illustrating products that can be produced when multiplying first and second n-bit significands of first and second floating point operands, along with an indication of the bits used for rounding; 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of logic provided within a data processing apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention to produce an n-bit result when multiplying two n-bit significands of two floating point operands; 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating in more detail the routing of bits between the various pieces of logic provided in stage N 3  of  FIG. 2 ; 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating in more detail the processing performed in stage N 4  in order to produce the fraction component of the n-bit result in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating the logic provided within the sticky bit generation logic of  FIG. 3  in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; 
       FIG. 6  is a diagram schematically illustrating the underflow range, normal range and overflow range for positive floating point numbers; and 
       FIG. 7  is a block diagram of logic provided within a data processing apparatus in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention to calculate a product exponent when multiplying two floating point operands. 
   

   DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating logic provided within a data processing apparatus of one embodiment of the present invention to multiply first and second n-bit significands of two floating point operands in order to produce an n-bit final result. For the sake of illustration, it is assumed that the input operands are single precision floating point operands, and accordingly each operand consists of a 1-bit sign value, an 8-bit exponent value and a 23-bit fraction value. The 23-bit fraction value will be converted into a 24-bit significand and the 24-bit significands from both floating point operands will be provided to the registers  10 ,  20 , respectively. 
   As shown in  FIG. 2 , the multiplier has a 4-stage pipeline. Most of the fourth stage is used for forwarding, hence for example allowing the multiplier result to be forwarded to a separate addition pipeline in order to enable multiply-accumulate operations to be performed. Given that most of the fourth stage is used for forwarding, the bulk of the multiplication logic is provided in the first three stages. 
   The first two stages, N 1  and N 2 , employ an array of small adders and compressors in order to multiply the two n-bit significands so as to produce a redundant pair of 2n-bit vectors representing the 2n-bit product. In particular, partial product generation logic  30  is provided to generate from the two 24-bit input significands 24 partial products, after which a set of 4:2 compressors  40  and 3:2 carry-save adders (CSAs)  50  are used to reduce the 24 partial products to 8 partial products, which are latched in the registers  60  at the end of stage N 1 . In stage N 2 , further sets of 4:2 compressors  70  and 4:2 compressors  80  are used to reduce the 8 partial products down to two 48-bit vectors D and E, vector D being stored in register  90  and vector E being stored in register  100  at the end of stage N 2 . 
   Since most of stage  4  is required for forwarding, stage  3  is required to do most of the processing required to produce a rounded result. In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, this is achieved through the use of half adder logic 110 which is arranged to perform a half adder operation on a bits  47  to  22  of vectors D and E, with two carry-propagate adders  120  and  130  then being arranged to perform two separate additions of the vectors D and E using as a certain number of most significant bits of the vectors D and E the carry and sum values output by the half adder logic  110  whilst for the remainder of the bits using the actual values of the vectors D and E stored within the registers  90  and  100 . 
   As will be appreciated from the earlier discussion of  FIG. 1 , the least significant bit of the final n-bit result will be dependent on whether the product has overflowed or not. In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, rounding is performed by inserting a 1 at the bit position immediately to the right of the least significant bit, this bit position being referred to as the guard bit position. This insertion of a 1 hence causes ½ ULP (Unit in the Lowest Place) to be added to the result. The following table illustrates the bit position at which such a rounding increment must be added for both the no overflow and overflow cases: 
   
     
       
             
             
             
             
           
         
             
               TABLE 2 
             
             
                 
             
             
               Case 
               Significant bits 
               Rounding Location (G) 
               Sticky bits 
             
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               No overflow 
               46:23 
               22 
               21:0 
             
             
               Overflow 
               47:24 
               23 
               22:0 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   Accordingly, for the no overflow condition, it can be seen that a 1 needs to injected at bit position  22 , whereas for an overflow condition a 1 needs to be injected at bit position  23 . As will be shown later with reference to a discussion of the half adder form, the least significant carry bit produced by a half adder will always be zero, and accordingly a 1 can readily be inserted at that bit position. As will be discussed in more detail with reference to  FIG. 3 , this fact is used to enable a 1 to be injected at bit position  22  of a first input to the adder  130  unless the product exponent is detected to be a predetermined exponent value, and to enable a 1 to be injected at bit position  23  of a first input to the adder  120 , this resulting in the adder  130  producing a rounded result for the no overflow case unless the product exponent is detected to be a predetermined exponent value (in which case an unrounded result is produced), whilst the adder  120  produces a rounded result for the overflow case. 
   As shown in  FIG. 2 , register  140  is arranged to register bits  46  to  23  output by the adder  120 . With reference to the earlier table 2, it can be seen that the n-bit result for the overflow condition is actually given by bits  47  to  24 . However, it will be appreciated that if the overflow result is selected, this is done on the basis that bit  47  is set to a one, and accordingly there is no need to latch bit  47  in the register  140 . Bit  23  (i.e. the guard bit for the overflow case) is latched in register  140 , since, as will be discussed in more detail later with reference to  FIG. 4 , this information is required in stage N 4  when determining whether any correction is required to the least significant bit of the result. 
   As also shown in  FIG. 2 , register  150  latches bits  47  to  22  of the result produced by adder  130 . With reference to the earlier table 2, it can be seen that the result for the no overflow case is given by bits  46  to  23 . However, bit  47  is latched, since it is used in stage N 4  to determine whether it is appropriate to select as the output the overflow result or the no overflow result. Further, bit  22  (i.e. the guard bit) is latched since this is also required in stage N 4  to determine whether any correction to the least significant bit is required. 
   As shown in  FIG. 2 , a multiplexer  160  is provided to select the final n-bit significand result using either the bits stored within the register  140  (in the case that the overflow condition is determined to exist) or the bits in the register  150  (in the case that the overflow condition is determined not to exist). More details of the selection performed in stage N 4  will be described later with reference to  FIG. 4 . In practice, the multiplexer  160  outputs the 23-bit fraction result (i.e. n−1 bits) rather than the 24-bit significand result, since the most significant bit of the significand is known to be a logic 1 value. 
   Path  165  is provided to enable special values to be input to the multiplexer  160 , such as may be appropriate, for example, if at the time the input operands are evaluated a special case is detected, for example a NaN (Not-a-Number), infinities, and zeros. This path  165  also allows selection of a signed zero value in situations where a determination of a result value just within the subnormal range is detected, as will be discussed in more detail later with reference to  FIGS. 3 ,  4  and  7 . 
   The processing logic used to handle the generation of the exponent value for the product will be discussed in more detail later with reference to  FIG. 7 . However, for the time being it is worth noting that increment logic is provided in the exponent generation path such that, if the final n-bit significand result is selected from the bits stored within the register  140  (i.e. the overflow condition is determined to exist), then the determined exponent value is incremented by one. 
   Before discussing the logic of  FIG. 3 , the following background is provided concerning the operation of an n-bit half adder and the manner in which the half adder operations can be performed to enable a rounding bit to be readily incorporated at the stage that the redundant products are summed. 
   An n-bit half adder consists of n independent half adders. It takes two n-bit two&#39;s complement numbers as inputs, and produces two outputs: an n-bit sum and an n-bit carry. Let X=x n−1  . . . x 1 x 0 , and Y=y n−1  . . . y 1 y 0  be n-bit words with low order bits x 0  and y 0 . An n-bit half adder produces a carry word C=c n−1  . . . c 1 0 and a sum word S=s n−1  . . . s 1 s 0  such that:
 
 c   i   =x   i−1  AND  y   i−1   (1)
 
s i =x i  XOR y i   (2)
 
   Note that c 0  is always 0, and that C+S=X+Y (modulo 2 n ). 
   By definition, (C,S) is in n-bit half-adder form (also referred to as n-bit h-a form) if there exist n-bit X and Y satisfying equations 1 and 2. We write (C,S)=ha(X,Y), and the modifier “n-bit” can be omitted unless it is necessary for clarity. 
   Theorem 1 
   Let (C,S) be a number in h-a form. Then it can be proved that the situation where S=−1 means that C+S=−1. 
   Proof 
               (C,S) is in h-a form, so there exist X and Y such that X+Y=−1 and (C,S)=ha(X,Y). By the definition of a two&#39;s complement number, X+Y=−1 means that Y=  X . Then by equation 2, S=X XOR  X =−1.
               By the definition of h-a from (see equations (1) and (2) above), only one of c i  and s i−1  can be set for i=1, . . . , n−1, so C=0, and C+S=−1.
   The above Theorem 1 was discussed in the paper “Early Zero Detection” by D Lutz et al, Proceedings of the 1996 International Conference on Computer Design, pages 545 to 550. However, it was only discussed in the context of integer arithmetic. 
   Theorem 2 
   (Sticky Bit Detection) Let X and Y be n-bit numbers, and let (C,S)=ha(ha(  X ,  Y )+1). Then X+Y=0           S=−1.
 
 X+Y= 0            −X−Y− 1=−1
 
             X + 1 +  Y + 1−1=−1
 
             X +  Y + 1=−1
 
An efficient way to compute  X +  Y +1 is to add  X  and  Y  with a half-adder. Bit zero of the resulting carry word will be zero, so 1 can be readily added by setting that bit zero to one. The result is then not in half-adder form, so the result is passed through a second half adder, producing (C,S). Then by theorem 1, a check as to whether C+S=−1 can be performed by testing whether S=−1.

   In practice, theorem 2 is only applied to the bottom k and k+1 bits of X and Y. The half-adders are applied to the bottom k+1 bits, and then k and k+1 input ANDs of the low order bits of S are computed. 
   As seen in the previous proof, the half-adder form gives an easy way to add one to a sum because of the fact that c 0 =0. A serendipitous extension of this fact is that given a sum in both its original and half-adder forms, 2 k  can be added to the sum just as easily. This allows a rounding constant 2 k  to be added at any of several bit positions at no cost. 
   Theorem 3 
   (Rounding) Let X and Y be n-bit numbers, and let (C,S)=ha(X,Y). Then for any k&lt;n−1,
 
 X+Y+ 2 k   =C[n −1, k+ 1]1 X[k− 1,0 ]+S[n− 1 , k]Y[k− 1,0]
 
Proof:
 
   The 1 at position k on the right hand side of the equation adds 2 k , so it suffices to show that X+Y=C[n−1, k+1]0X[k−1,0]+S[n−1,k]Y[k−1,0]. Clearly the low order k bits are identical, since they are the unchanged X and Y inputs. The sum of the upper n-k bits are equal (module 2 n ) by the definition of half-adder form. 
   Computations on floating point numbers are required in a variety of applications. Once such application is in the processing of graphics data, and with the migration of graphics applications to more and more handheld wireless devices, the need for providing floating point processing capability within such devices in an efficient manner is becoming a significant issue. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the IEEE 754 standard defines certain requirements for the handling of floating point numbers, and identifies a number of possible rounding modes. However, it has been found that the requirements for processing graphics data are significantly less restrictive than those of the IEEE 754 Standard. In particular the range and precision available in the single precision data type and the round-to-nearest rounding mode are suitable for most graphics processing computations. 
   In accordance with the round-to-nearest rounding mode, also referred to as the “Round-to-Nearest-Even” (RNE) rounding mode, values that are more than half way between two representable results are rounded up, whilst values that are less than half way between two representable results are rounded down (or truncated). Values that are exactly half way between two representable results are rounded to a final result that has a least significant fraction bit equal to zero, thus making the result even. 
   In the embodiment of the invention discussed herein, the multiplication logic is arranged to operate on single precision operands, and to round the results according to the RNE rounding mode. 
   As discussed earlier with reference to  FIG. 2 , the unrounded result is given by D+E, and the point at which rounding is performed is determined by the location of the high order bit of D+E, which will be at bit position  46  for the no overflow case or bit position  47  for the overflow case. To perform rounding, a logic one value is added at the guard bit position, which is bit  22  for the no overflow case and bit  23  for the overflow case. 
   The injection of the required rounding increment values at bits  22  and  23  could be achieved by using full adders at bit positions  22  and  23 , and half adders for bits  24  through  47 , but the delay taken by the presence of the full adders at bit position  22  and bit position  23  would be unacceptable having regard to the timing requirements of the data processing apparatus. However, by taking advantage of the earlier described theorem 3, the apparatus of one embodiment of the present invention is able to use only half adders for the processing of bits  22  through  47 , whilst still enabling the required rounding increment bits to be injected at bit positions  22  and  23 . This will be discussed in more detail with reference to  FIG. 3 . 
   As shown in  FIG. 3 , the two 48-bit vectors D and E are stored in the registers  90  and  100 , and bits  47  to  22  of D and E are provided as inputs to the half adder logic  110 . This causes the half adder logic  110  to output carry and sum vectors C and S for bits  47  to  22 , which are selectively used by the carry-propagate adders  120 ,  130  in combination with bits of the original partial products D and E when performing their addition processing. 
   The original sum is D+E, where:
 
D=d 47 d 46  . . . d 23 d 22 d 21 d 20  . . . d 1 d 0  
 
E=e 47 e 46  . . . e 23 e 22 e 21 e 20  . . . e 1 e 0  
 
The modified (no overflow) sum is C no     —     ovfl +S no     —     ovfl , where
 
C no     —     ovfl =c 47 c 46  . . . c 23 0d 21 d 20  . . . d 1 d 0  
 
S no     —     ovfl =s 47 s 46  . . . s 23 s 22 e 21 e 20  . . . e 1 e 0  
 
   Given the earlier discussion of the half adder form, it will be appreciated that c 22  is in fact equal to zero. If a logic one value is inserted in place of the zero at position  22  in the above no overflow sum, then this will cause the output from the carry propagate adder  130  to represent the rounded result for the no overflow case. As will be discussed later with reference to  FIG. 7 , the exponent path logic detects a situation where the product exponent is one less than the exponent of a minimum normal product, and in such situations sets a value (subnormal_exp) to one. As shown in  FIG. 3 , bit  22  of the first input value received by the carry propagate adder  130  is driven by an inverted version of the subnormal_exp value, and accordingly bit  22  will be set to a logic 1 value if the subnormal_exp signal is not set and will be set to a logic zero value if the subnormal_exp value is set. Accordingly, in all situations other than that in which the product exponent is determined to be one less than the exponent of the minimum normal value, a logic 1 value is forced into bit  22  of the first input value received by the carry propagate adder  130  with bits  47 - 23  of that input being provided by the corresponding carry bits produced by the half-adder logic  110 , and the remaining bits  21 - 0  being provide by the corresponding bits of the partial product D. With regard to the other input to the carry propagate adder  130 , this is provided by the sum bits  47 - 22 , with the remaining bits  21 - 0  being provided by the original bits of the partial product E. Accordingly, the carry propagate adder  130  will produce a first rounded result in, all situations other than where the subnormal_exp value is set, in which event it will produce a first unrounded result. 
   Furthermore, by applying theorem 3, it is also possible to set up the sum for the overflow case. In particular, the overflow sum is C ovfl +S ovfl , where:
 
C ovfl =c 47 c 46  . . . c 24 0d 22 d 21  . . . d 1 d 0  
 
S ovfl =s 47 s 46  . . . s 24 s 23 e 22 e 21  . . . e 1 e 0  
 
   Again, due to the properties of the half adder form, the value of c 23  is zero, and hence if one is inserted in place of the zero at position  23  in the overflow sum, then this will produce a rounded result for the overflow case. It should be noted that all of the bits needed for the overflow sum have already been computed by the half adder logic  110  and accordingly the carry propagate adder  120  can be readily arranged to perform the necessary summation. In particular, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the first input to the carry propagate adder  120  receives a logic one value at bit  23 , whilst bits  46  to  24  are provided by the carry output from the half adder logic  110  and bits  22  to  0  are provided by the original bits of partial product D. The second input of the carry propagate adder  120  receives bits  46  to  23  from the sum output of the half adder logic  110 , whilst bits  22  to  0  are provided by the original bits of the partial product E. 
   It should be noted that the carry propagate adder  120  could also have received bits  47  of the carry and sum output from the half adder logic  110 , but this is unnecessary due to the fact that the result produced by the carry propagate adder  120  will only be used in the event that the overflow condition is detected, and if the overflow condition exists then it is known that the most significant bit of the result (i.e. bit  47 ) will be a logic one value. 
   Sticky bit generation logic  200  is provided for performing a logical OR operation on all bits to the right of the guard bit position, which will be bits  21  to  0  for the no overflow result and bits  22  to  0  for the overflow result. Typically, the sticky bit determination is performed using the relevant bits of the final result, but this would have an adverse impact on the speed of operation of the apparatus, and could present a significant timing problem. However, in embodiments of the present invention, by applying the earlier described theorem 2, the sticky bit generation logic  200  is arranged to perform the required evaluation of the sticky bit for both the non-overflow and the overflow case using the lower  22  and  23  bits of D and E. In particular, the logic provided within the sticky bit generation logic  200  in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention will be described further with reference to  FIG. 5 . 
   As discussed with reference to the earlier theorem 2, if the relevant low order bits of D and E are all zero, this can be determined by passing the inverted lower order bits of D and E through a half adder, adding one to bit zero, and then re-passing the data through a half adder to produce carry and sum bits in half adder form. If the resultant sum value is equal to −1, this will indicate that the input lower order bits of D and E are zero, and that accordingly the sticky bit should be set to zero. In all other cases, the sticky bit should be set to one. 
   This processing is performed in  FIG. 5  by inverting bits  22  to  0  of D and E using respective inverters  400  and  410 , whereafter the output from both inverters is passed through a 23-bit half adder logic  420 . A logic one value is then injected into the least significant bit of the carry value, which results in the carry and sum values no longer being in half-adder form. To correct this, the data could be passed through another 23-bit half adder. However, given that the only check that subsequently needs to be performed is a check as to whether the sum value is equal to −1, the carry value is no longer of interest. Accordingly, the required sum value can be produced using the 23 two-input XOR gates  430 . If the resultant sum value is −1, this will be indicated in twos complement form by all bits being set equal to one. Accordingly, AND gate  440  performs a logical AND operation of the low order 22 bits (i.e. bits  21  to  0 ) which will only produce an output logic one value if all input bits are set to one. The output from the AND gate  440  is then inverted by the inverter  470  in order to produce the sticky value appropriate for the no overflow condition. It will be appreciated that the sticky value will have a logic zero value if the sum value was equal to −1 (i.e. bits  21  to  0  of both D and E were all zeros), but otherwise will have a logic one value. 
   For the overflow evaluation, the output from the AND gate  440  is routed to AND gate  450 , which also receives the most significant bit of the sum value produced by the XOR gate logic  430 . The output from the AND gate  450  is inverted by the inverter  460  in order to produce the sticky bit value for the overflow condition. It can hence be seen that the sticky bit for the overflow condition will only be set to zero if the sum value is all ones, indicating that bits  22  to  0  of D and E are all zero, whereas in all other instances the sticky bit will be set to one. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the two sticky bits are stored in registers  210  and  220 , respectively, at the end of stage N 3 . 
     FIG. 4  illustrates the logic provided in stage N 4  to make the final selection of the 23 fraction bits of the result dependent on whether the overflow condition exists or not and whether the subnormal_exp signal is set, and also illustrates logic provided to perform any necessary correction of the least significant bits of the result due to incorrect rounding. As will be appreciated from the earlier described  FIG. 1 , the presence of the overflow condition can be determined by looking at bit  47  of the result produced by the carry propagate adder  130 . Bit  47  from register  150  is hence used as an input to result selection logic  370 . The result selection logic  370  also receives three other input signals that are received from the exponent processing path to be discussed later with reference to  FIG. 7 . Firstly, it receives the earlier-mentioned subnormal_exp signal identifying whether the product exponent is one less than the exponent of the minimum normal value, and in addition receives a product_special signal which is set by the exponent processing path if it detects any special condition which will require the generation of a special result. In addition, an exp_max signal is received which is set if the product exponent is the maximum exponent for a value in the normal range. 
   The result selection logic  370  will output a signal to the multiplexers  305  and  360  indicating that a special result received at their inputs should be output if the product_special signal is set. If bit T[ 47 ] is not set, indicating that there is no overflow in the result, and the subnormal_exp signal is set, then as discussed earlier this indicates a situation where the result is actually just in the subnormal range, and accordingly a signed zero should be returned. In this case, the result selection logic  370  again outputs a signal to the multiplexers  305 ,  360  indicating that they should output the value they received over the special results input path to those multiplexers, which in this case will be set to a signed zero. 
   If neither the subnormal_exp signal is set nor is the product_special signal set, then the multiplexers  305  and  360  are sent control signals dependent solely on the value of bit T[ 47 ]. More particularly, if bit  47  is set, this indicates the overflow condition, and accordingly the multiplexers  305 ,  360  are arranged to output the input signal received at their left-hand side input as shown in  FIG. 4 , whereas if the bit  47  is not set, this indicates the no overflow condition, in which case the multiplexers  305 ,  360  are arranged to output the signals received at their right-hand input as shown in  FIG. 4 . 
   If the exp_max signal is set, this indicates that the product exponent is at the maximum value for the normal range. If the significand of the product produced by the significand processing path has not overflowed, then the result will still be in the normal range, whereas if that significand result has overflowed, then the result will no longer be in the normal range and accordingly a special result is required. 
   Multiplexer  305  receives bits  46  to  25  of the overflow result produced by the carry propagate adder  120  which in the event of the overflow condition will represent bits  22  to  1  of the final result, and similarly the multiplexer  305  receives at its other inputs bits  45  to  24  of the non-overflow result produced by the carry propagate adder  130 , which again will represent the fraction bits  22  to  1  of the final result for the no overflow condition. 
   It has been found that the rounded results produced by the carry propagate adders  120  and  130  produced using a forced injection of a logic one value at the guard position will be correctly rounded having regard to the RNE rounding mode, with the K possible exception of the least significant bit, which in one particular situation may be incorrect. This will be illustrated with reference to the following Table 3: 
   
     
       
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
           
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
             
           
         
             
                 
               TABLE 3 
             
             
                 
                 
             
             
                 
               L 
               G 
               S 
               R 
               LT 
               L′ 
               G′ 
               S′ 
             
             
                 
                 
             
           
           
             
                 
             
           
        
         
             
               a 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               1 
               0 
             
             
               b 
               0 
               0 
               1 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               1 
               1 
             
             
               c 
               0 
               1 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               1 
               0 
               0 
             
             
               d 
               0 
               1 
               1 
               1 
               1 
               1 
               0 
               1 
             
             
               e 
               1 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               1 
               1 
               1 
               0 
             
             
               f 
               1 
               0 
               1 
               0 
               1 
               1 
               1 
               1 
             
             
               g 
               1 
               1 
               0 
               1 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               0 
             
             
               h 
               1 
               1 
               1 
               1 
               0 
               0 
               0 
               1 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   The values L (least significant bit of result), G (guard bit, i.e. first bit not in the result), and S (sticky bit, which is the OR of all remaining bits not in the result) are the values that would exist prior to any rounding increment being introduced. The values L′, G′ and S′ are the corresponding values of those bits present at the output of the carry propagate adders  120 ,  130 , due to the insertion of a logic one value at the guard position. The R value indicates whether a rounding is in fact required, having regard to the RNE rounding mode, a logic one value indicating that a rounding should take place and a logic zero value indicating that no rounding is required. The value of R is obtained by the following computation:
 
(L AND G) OR (G AND S)
 
   The value LT in the table hence indicates the new least significant bit value that would result from the required rounding indicated by the R bit. If the LT value is then compared with the corresponding L′ value, i.e. the actual least significant bit value output by the carry propagate adders  120 ,  130 , then it can be seen that these differ only in row c, and accordingly this is the only situation where any corrective action needs to be taken in stage N 4  to account for an incorrect value of the least significant bit. In this situation, the G bit is set and the S bit is clear, hence indicating the “tie case” for the RNE rounding mode, i.e. the situation where the value is exactly half way between two representable values. In this case, the injection of a logic one value at the guard bit position has caused the L′ value to be set, but in actual fact the final least significant bit of the result should not be set. However, as shown in row c, the original least significant bit value was zero, and accordingly this error does not propagate past the least significant bit position, and all that is required is to reset the least significant bit position to zero. 
   This operation is performed by the logic  325 ,  335 ,  345  and  355  illustrated in  FIG. 4 . In particular, for the overflow result, OR gate  325  performs a logical OR operation on the G′ and S′ values (i.e. bit  23  from register  320  and the S ovfl  value from register  210 ). The output from the OR gate is then input to AND gate  335 , which performs an AND operation on that input and the value of L′ (i.e. bit  24  from the register  320 ). In the event that L′ is 1, and G′ and S′ are both 0, i.e. the situation for row c of table 3, this will cause a logic zero value to be input to the multiplexer  360 . In all other cases illustrated in table 3, this logic will ensure that the L′ value is propagated unchanged. 
   The OR gate  345  and the AND gate  355  operate in an identical manner for the no overflow case. The selection of the output from the multiplexer  360  is taken in dependence on the value of bit  47  of the no overflow result, i.e. bit  47  stored in register  150 . 
   As discussed earlier, embodiments of the present invention accommodate the case of the computed exponent determined to be immediately below the minimum exponent. For the single-precision format the subnormal values and zeros are represented with an exponent of 0x00. The normal values are represented with exponents in the range (1&lt;=x&lt;=254, or 0x01&lt;=x&lt;=0xfe). Infinity and NaN values have an exponent of 255, or 0xff. For double-precision the subnormal and zero exponent is again 0, and the normal range is 1&lt;=x&lt;=2046 (0x7fe), and the infinity and NaN exponent is 2047 (0x7ff). 
   Internal to the processor it is common to extend the exponent by one or two bits to accommodate the computed values outside the range of the precision. In one embodiment, the exponent is extended by one bit, making the ranges as below (note the internal exponent is a signed quantity, while the external exponent is a biased quantity, biased by +127): 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
               TABLE 4 
             
             
                 
             
             
                 
               External SP exponent 
               Internal exponent 
             
             
               Threshold 
               (8 bits) 
               (9 bits) 
             
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               Minimum computable 
               not representable 
               0b100000010/0x102 
             
             
               Subnormal 
               0x00 
               0b110000000/0x180 
             
             
               Minimum normal 
               0x01 
               0b110000001/0x181 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   In Table 4, it should be noted that the minimum computable value is unrepresentable in the destination format, and exists only internal to the processor. 
   A floating point data value in the defined subnormal range can be expressed as follows:
 
±0.x*2 min  
 
   where: x=fraction
         0.x=significand (also known as the mantissa)   min=exponent       

   The subnormal value specifies an exponent of 0, which is modified internally in one embodiment to have the value of 0x180. 
   From the above Table 4, the determination of an underflow case may be made on the computed product exponent alone if the exponent is in the range (0x102&lt;=x&lt;0x180). This computation considers only normal operand values. A similar table to table 4 could be constructed considering normal and subnormal operand values which would have a different minimum computable value. 
   If the computed exponent is exactly 0x180, the final result may be below the normal threshold if the computed product significand is in the range (1.0&lt;=x&lt;2.0), but will be in the normal range if the computed product significand is in the range (2.0&lt;=x&lt;4.0). From the earlier discussion, it is apparent that this is not known until after the summation of the ‘D’ and ‘E’ vectors in stage N 3 . In the processing of normal values (computed exponent &gt;0x181) the two adders  120 ,  130  compute a rounded value for both the significand overflow case and the non overflow case, and the determination of which is the final result is based on the overflow determination of the T rounded sum. If T[ 47 ] is set the overflow result is selected, if not the non overflow result is selected. 
   If the product exponent is equal to 0x180, the increment injected into the T adder  130  at bit position [ 22 ] is forced to zero rather than one as in the normal case. When this bit is forced to zero the T sum is not incremented. In this way it may then be determined by the result selection logic  370  whether the unrounded sum is in the non overflow range (1.0&lt;=x&lt;2.0) or in the overflow range (2.0&lt;=x&lt;4.0). If the sum is in the non overflow range the value is less than minimum normal and a zero result is returned (this is the flush case). Otherwise, if it is in the overflow range the result is greater than minimum normal and a normal result is to be returned. In this latter case the output of the T_ovfl adder  120  is returned, with the least significant bit modified as needed by the rounding algorithm. 
   For double-precision floating point numbers the exponent must be 12 bits, and the interesting values are: 
   
     
       
             
             
             
           
         
             
               TABLE 5 
             
             
                 
             
             
                 
               External DP exponent 
               Internal exponent 
             
             
               Threshold 
               (11 bits) 
               (12 bits) 
             
             
                 
             
           
           
             
               Minimum computable 
               not representable 
               0b100000000010/0x802 
             
             
               Subnormal 
               0x000 
               0b110000000000/0xC00 
             
             
               Minimum normal 
               0x001 
               0b110000000001/0xC01 
             
             
                 
             
           
        
       
     
   
   The subnormal exponent value of interest for double-precision floating point numbers is hence 0xC00 instead of 0x180, but otherwise the processing performed is analogous to that discussed earlier for single-precision floating point numbers. As with Table 4, only normal operand values are considered in Table 5, and a similar table to Table 5 could be constructed considering normal and subnormal operand values which would have a different minimum computable value. 
     FIG. 7  is a block diagram of the logic provided within the data processing apparatus to process the exponent values of the input operands. The exponent values of the input operands are stored in the registers  500 ,  505 . Thereafter, during stage n 1  these 8-bit exponent values are converted to internal format by respective logic  510 ,  515  resulting in 9-bit values being output which are then added together by adder  520  in order to produce a 9-bit exponent value for the product (in internal format), which is stored in register  525 . 
   In stage N 2 , this 9-bit product exponent value is converted to external format by the logic  530  so as to produce an 8-bit final product exponent which is stored in register  535 . In addition, the contents of register  525  are provided to exponent evaluation logic  540  which evaluates whether the exponent value corresponds to any of a number of special cases. In one embodiment, the exponent evaluation logic evaluates whether any of five special cases exists, one of which being the case where the exponent is one less than the exponent of the minimum normal range. The register  545  stores 5-bits of information indicative of the results of the evaluation performed by the exponent evaluation logic  540 . 
   In stage N 3 , the contents of register  535  are passed unchanged to register  555 , and in addition an incremented version of the exponent is produced by adder  550  and stored in register  560 . In addition, the five bits of information stored in register  545  are output to special result determination logic  565  which determines whether a special result needs to be returned as the result of the multiplication performed by the data processing apparatus. In particular, the special result determination logic  565  will determine that a special result is required if either input operand was zero, a signed infinity, or a NaN, and will also determine that a special result is required if the product exponent evaluation has indicated a catastrophic overflow or a catastrophic underflow condition. Furthermore, the special result determination logic  565  will determine the form of the special result and forward that special result as one of the inputs to the multiplexer  575 , and indeed to the earlier discussed multiplexers  305 ,  360  in the significand processing path shown in  FIG. 4 . 
   Three signals will then be output from the special result determination logic  565 , one being a prod_special signal which is set if a special result is required, another being the subnormal_exp signal, and a final signal being an exp_max signal indicating that the exponent is a maximum exponent for the normal range. These three signals are stored in the register  570 . Also as shown in  FIG. 7 , the subnormal_exp value is output from the exponent path in stage N 3  to the significand processing path in stage N 3  where it is inverted prior to being input as bit  22  of the first input to the carry propagate adder  130  (see the earlier discussion of  FIG. 3 ). 
   In stage N 4 , the result selection logic  580 , which in one embodiment is the same result selection logic as the result selection logic  370  illustrated in  FIG. 4 , determines, based on the received signals from the register  570  and from bit  47  of the output of adder  130  in the significand path, an appropriate signal to provide to the multiplexer  575 . 
   In particular, the result selection logic  580  will output a signal to the multiplexer  575  indicating that a special result received at its input should be output if the product_special signal is set. If bit T[ 47 ] is not set, indicating that there is no overflow in the result, and the subnormal_exp signal is set, then as discussed earlier this indicates a situation where the result is actually just in the subnormal range, and accordingly a signed zero should be returned. In this case, the result selection logic  580  again outputs a signal to the multiplexer  575  indicating that it should output the value received over the special results input path to that multiplexer, which in this case will be set to a signed zero. 
   If neither the subnormal_exp signal is set nor is the product_special signal set, then the multiplexer  575  is sent a control signal dependent solely on the value of bit T[ 47 ]. More particularly, if bit T[ 47 ] is set, this indicates the overflow condition, and accordingly the multiplexer  575  is arranged to output the input signal received at its right-hand side input as shown in  FIG. 7 , whereas if bit T[ 47 ] is not set, this indicates the no overflow condition, in which the multiplexer  575  is arranged to output the signal received at its left-hand input as shown in  FIG. 7 . 
   If the exp_max signal is set, this indicates that the product exponent is at the maximum value for the normal range. If the significand of the product produced by the significand processing path has not overflowed, then the result will still be in the normal range, whereas if that significand result has overflowed, then the result will no longer be in the normal range and accordingly a special result is required. 
   From the above described embodiment, it can be seen that the data processing apparatus described provides a very efficient technique for multiplying two significands of two floating point operands. In particular, rounding increment values can be injected prior to performing the final addition in the carry propagate adders, with properties of the half adder form being exploited to enable the rounding bit to be injected using only half adders, thereby avoiding the time penalty that would be incurred if full adders were to be used. Furthermore, when employing the RNE rounding mode, it has been found that the obtained results are correct in all situations other than the tie case, and in the tie case the result can be readily corrected merely by resetting the least significant bit of the result to zero. Additionally, the embodiments of the invention enable an efficient detection of a result which is in the subnormal range before rounding, in situations where such determination would be difficult and/or prohibitively costly earlier in the flow of steps (i.e. where the computed result exponent is immediately below the minimum normal exponent). 
   It will be appreciated that the above described techniques for injecting the rounding increment using a half adder structure prior to performance of the final addition might also be used in situations where other rounding modes are supported, but in such instances different correction logic may be required in stage N 4  to correct for any errors introduced into the result as a result of the forced rounding increment. 
   Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described herein, it will be apparent that the invention is not limited thereto, and that many modifications and additions may be made within the scope of the invention. For example, various combinations of the features of the following dependent claims could be made with the features of the independent claims without departing from the scope of the present invention.