Calculate 3.41796875 10^-3 × (6.34765625 × 10^-3 × 1.05625 × 10²) by hand, assuming each of the values are stored in the 16-bit half precision format described in Exercise 3.27 (and also described in the text). Assume 1 guard, 1 round bit, and 1 sticky bit, and round to the nearest even. Show all the steps, and write your answer in both the 16-bit floating point format and in decimal.

Exercise 3.27

IEEE 754-2008 contains a half precision that is only 16 bits wide. The left most bit is still the sign bit, the exponent is 5 bits wide and has a bias of 15, and the mantissa is 10 bits long. A hidden 1 is assumed. Write down the bit pattern to represent -1.5625 × 10^-1 assuming a version of this format, which uses an excess-16 format to store the exponent. Comment on how the range and accuracy of this 16-bit floating point format compares to the single precision IEEE 754 standard.