Floating point numbers arithmetic

Radix 100 notations
RAM addresses
Floating point routines

Radix 100 notation

In the TI-99/4A real numbers are represented in radix 100, floating point notation. This notation uses 8 bytes per number. It is different from that used on PCs and yet extremely efficient: at equal processing power a TI-99/4A would do much better than a PC.

Exponent

The exponent is 1 byte long. Its value is biased by >40:

>40 is E+0
>41 is E+1
>3F is E-1
etc.

Mantissa

The mantissa is seven bytes long. Each byte contains a number between 0 and 99 (>00 and >63), providing up to 14 significant digits. The decimal point is assumed to be after the first mantissa byte (i.e. after the second digit).

Negative number

Both the exponent and the first mantissa byte are negated, i.e. the first word is negated.

Zero

The number zero is an exception: the exponent and the first mantissa byte are both zero (i.e. the first word is >0000). The remaining bytes can have any value.

Examples

Exponent Mantissa                      Value              
>40      >01 >02 >03 >04 >05 >06 >07   1.020304050607
>41      >01 >02 >03 >04 >05 >06 >0B   10.20304050611
>3F      >05 >00 >00 >00 >00 >00 >00   0.5
>BF(-41) >FF >02 >03 >05 >05 >06 >12   -10.20304050618
>00      >00 >xx >xx >xx >xx >xx >xx   0 (any exponent!)


Scratch-pad addresses

Most ROM and GROM routines that deal with real numbers use the following addresses in the scratch-pad RAM.

FAC: an 8 bytes area, from >834A to >8351 (Floating point ACcumulator)
ARG: an 8 bytes area, from >835C to >8363 (ARGument accumulator)
SGN: byte >8375, sign of FAC (00 = positive, >FF = negative)
EE: byte >8376, copy of FAC exponent
ERCODE: byte >8354, error code returned by floating point calculation routines.
VSPTR: bytes >836E->836F, pointer to a data stack in VDP memory. In Basic it is called the value stack, but you can use it even if your program does not run with Basic: just put a relevant value in >836E-F

Error codes

The following error codes can be found at >8354, after a real number operation. In general, the Cnd bit of the GPL status byte (>837C) is set, if an error occured.

>01 Overflow (warning) / Division by 0 (error)
>02 Syntax error
>03 Integer overflow, on conversion
>04 Square root of a negative number
>05 Negative number raised to non-integer power
>06 Log(0) or log of a negative number
>07 Trigonometric function error


Floating point calculations routines

A number of assembly and GPL routines that perform advanced calculations with floating points are at your disposal. In general, they should be called from GPL: the assembly routines as XML, the GPL routines with CALL. However, you can also use them in assembly, with a suitable calling routine.

You'll see in the table below that many floating point operations are performed by two distinct routines: one uses two numbers in the scratch-pad (in FAC and in ARG), the other a number in FAC and a number in the VDP stack. The stack pointer (in >836E-F) is automatically decremented by 8 to point at the next number once the operation is completed.

XML routines.

Mnemonic XML Use
ROUND1 >01 Rounds number in FAC from 9 to 8 bytes.
ROUND >02 Rounds this number. Number of decimals in >835C.
STST >03 Test number in FAC and saves status.
OVEXP >04 Overflow / underflow.
OV >05 Overflow (part of the above procedure).
FADD >06 Adds two real numbers: FAC = FAC + ARG
FSUB >07 Substracts a real from another: FAC = ARG - FAC
FMUL >08 Multiplies two reals: FAC = FAC * ARG
FDIV >09 Divides real by another: FAC = FAC / ARG
FCOMP >0A Compares two reals (FAC with ARG)
SADD >0B Addition with stack: FAC = FAC + real_on_stack
SSUB >0C Substraction with stack: FAC = real_on_stack - FAC
SMUL >0D Multiplication with stack: FAC = FAC * real_on_stack
SDIV >0E Division with stack: FAC = FAC / real_on_stack
SCOMP >0F Comparison with stack: FAC with real_on_stack
CSN >10 Converts a string (ptr in >8356) to a real (in FAC), from Basic
CSNGR >11 Same as above, entry point from GPL.
CFI >12 Converts real to integer (from FAC to FAC)
VPUSH >17 Pushes a value on the VDP stack, from FAC
VPOP >18 Pops a value from the VDP stack to FAC


GROM routines

Mnemonic Address Use
CNS >0014 Convert number to string (from FAC to FAC, infos in >8355-57)
INT >0022 Convert real to integer (from FAC to FAC)
PWR >0024 Power-of-ten routine: FAC=FAC * 10^ARG
SQR >0026 Square root routine: FAC=SQR(FAC)
EXP >0028 Exponentiation routine: FAC=e^FAC
LOG >002A Logarithm calculation: FAC=ln(FAC)
COS >002C Cosine calculation: FAC=cos(FAC)
SIN >002E Sine calculation: FAC=sin(FAC)
TAN >0030 Tangent calculation: FAC=tan(FAC)
ATN >0032 Arctangent calculation: FAC=atn(FAC)

Revision 1. 6/23/99 OK to release


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