A number representation consisting of a mantissa, M, an exponent, E, and an (assumed) radix (or "base") . The number represented is M*R^E where R is the radix - usually ten but sometimes 2.

Many different representations are used for the mantissa and exponent themselves. The IEEE specify a standard representation which is used by many hardware floating-point systems.

See also floating-point accelerator, floating-point unit.

Normalisation is the process of converting a floating point number into canonical form where any number other than zero has a mantissa whose first digit is non-zero.

Opposite: fixed-point.