xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/softfloat/README.txt (revision af0a81b6470aba4af4a24ae9804053722846ded4)
1$NetBSD: README.txt,v 1.1 2000/06/06 08:15:02 bjh21 Exp $
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3Package Overview for SoftFloat Release 2a
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5John R. Hauser
61998 December 13
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9SoftFloat is a software implementation of floating-point that conforms to
10the IEC/IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic.  SoftFloat is
11distributed in the form of C source code.  Compiling the SoftFloat sources
12generates two things:
13
14-- A SoftFloat object file (typically `softfloat.o') containing the complete
15   set of IEC/IEEE floating-point routines.
16
17-- A `timesoftfloat' program for evaluating the speed of the SoftFloat
18   routines.  (The SoftFloat module is linked into this program.)
19
20The SoftFloat package is documented in four text files:
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22   softfloat.txt          Documentation for using the SoftFloat functions.
23   softfloat-source.txt   Documentation for compiling SoftFloat.
24   softfloat-history.txt  History of major changes to SoftFloat.
25   timesoftfloat.txt      Documentation for using `timesoftfloat'.
26
27Other files in the package comprise the source code for SoftFloat.
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29Please be aware that some work is involved in porting this software to other
30targets.  It is not just a matter of getting `make' to complete without
31error messages.  I would have written the code that way if I could, but
32there are fundamental differences between systems that I can't make go away.
33You should not attempt to compile SoftFloat without first reading both
34`softfloat.txt' and `softfloat-source.txt'.
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36At the time of this writing, the most up-to-date information about
37SoftFloat and the latest release can be found at the Web page `http://
38HTTP.CS.Berkeley.EDU/~jhauser/arithmetic/SoftFloat.html'.
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