US 7,321,914 B2
Fast method for calculating powers of two as a floating point data type
James T. Kurnik, Linden, Mich. (US)
Assigned to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich. (US)
Filed on Feb. 18, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/781,429.
Prior Publication US 2005/0182810 A1, Aug. 18, 2005
Int. Cl. G06B 7/483 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 708—495 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computing system that includes a computer-readable medium and calculates an exponent portion of a floating point data type, for use in calculating powers of two in a computer language processing environment supporting a union declaration functionality and a left shift functionality, comprising:
an input receptive of an exponent value;
a bias application module that biases the exponent value based on a selected precision of a floating point data type;
a storage module that stores the biased exponent value in a storage of the computer-readable medium having a size determined based on the selected precision;
a left shift application module that shifts the biased exponent value left by a number of bits determined based on the selected precision; and
an output module that outputs the biased exponent value from the storage as the floating point data type having the selected precision.