Digital Number Representation

Fixed-point and floating-point number representation

In digital hardware, binary numbers are represented as either fixed-point or floating-point data types. Understanding how different data types are defined and represented in hardware can help you to choose data types that are appropriate for your application.

Topics

General

Physical Quantities and Measurement Scales
Select measurement scales to represent physical quantities with fixed-point data types.
Benefits of Fixed-Point Hardware
Learn about the memory, speed, and cost benefits of using hardware with fixed-point data types.
Data Types and Scaling in Digital Hardware
Provides an overview of data types and scaling in digital hardware.
Supported Data Types
Data types supported for simulation and code generation.

Fixed-Point

Fixed-Point Data Types
Learn how fixed-point numbers are represented as binary words.
Quantization
A weighted sum of bits represents the quantization of a real-world value.
Fixed-Point Numbers in Simulink
Fixed-point data type and scaling notation used in Simulink^®.
numerictype of Fixed-Point Objects
Fields and settings for the numerictype object.
Fixed-Point Versus Built-in Integer Types
Differences between fixed-point data types and built-in integer data types in MATLAB^®.
Fraction Lengths and Fixed-Point Numbers
Definitions for negative fraction length and fraction length greater than word length.

Floating-Point

Floating-Point Numbers
Representation and manipulation of floating-point numbers.
Scaled Doubles
Hybrids between floating-point and fixed-point numbers, which are stored by Fixed-Point Designer™ as doubles.

Featured Examples

View Fixed-Point Number Circles

Define unsigned and signed two’s complement integer and fixed-point numbers.

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