From:	CSBVAX::MRGATE!info-vax-RELAY@KL.SRI.COM@SMTP  4-AUG-1988 00:25
To:	ARISIA::EVERHART
Subj:	Conversion between VAX and IEEE floating point


Received: from eglin-vax.arpa by KL.SRI.COM with TCP; Tue, 2 Aug 88 13:18:07 PDT
Date: 2 Aug 88 15:07:00 CST
From: "MARTIN J. MOORE" <mooremj@eglin-vax.arpa>
Subject: Conversion between VAX and IEEE floating point
To: "info-vax" <info-vax@kl.sri.com>
cc: mooremj     
Reply-To: "MARTIN J. MOORE" <mooremj@eglin-vax.arpa>

Someone recently asked about converting VAX floating-point numbers to IEEE 
standard floating-point numbers.  I have run across a mildly bizarre hack for 
performing this conversion when (1) the numbers are single precision (32-bit) 
in both cases; and (2) the destination machine requires 32-bit quantities
to be specified high-word, low-word (opposite to the VAX, which is low-word,
high-word.)  For example, 68000-based machines.

The formulas are simply:

	IEEE number = VAX number * 0.25 
	VAX number = IEEE number * 4.0

with the caveat that the multiplication is performed *on the VAX*.

				Marty Moore
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