Example 1) Represent the decimal number 23.

5 in 32-bit floating point binary

format:

Step One: Convert decimal number to binary representation.
(23)
10
= (10111)
2
and :
(0.5)
10
= (0.1)
2


We get (23.5)
10
= (10111.1)
2


Step Two: Move radix to point to 1.xxxx.* 2
exp
representation.

10111.1 1.01111 * 2
4


Step Three: Put it all together

Assign the sign bit (S=0).
Mantissa. Remember to ignore the leading 1.
In this case 1.01111 => 01111000000000000000000
Exponent. Add 127 to the exponent and get:
127 + 4 = 131. Convert 131 to binary: (131)
10
= (10000011)
2

So finally we have:

Sign Excess-127 Exponent Normalized Fraction
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0



Example 2) Represent the decimal number 46.875 in 32-bit floating point binary
format:

Step One: Convert decimal number to binary representation.
(46)
10
= (101110)
2
and :
(0.875)
10
= (0.5 + 0.25+ 0.125)
10
=> (0.111)
2


We get (46.875)
10
= (101110.111)
2


Step Two: Move radix to point to 1.xxxx.* 2
exp
representation.

101110.111 1.01110111 * 2
5


Step Three: Put it all together

Assign the sign bit (S=0).
Mantissa. Remember to ignore the leading 1.
In this case 1.01110111 => 01110111000000000000000
Exponent. Add 127 to the exponent and get:
127 + 5 = 132. Convert 132 to binary: (132)
10
= (10000100)
2

So finally we have:

Sign Excess-127 Exponent Normalized Fraction
0 10000100 01110111000000000000000