floating-point accelerator

(FPA) Additional hardware to perform functions on

floating-point numbers such as addition, multiplication,

logarithms, exponentials, trigonometric functions and various

kinds of rounding and error detection. A floating-point

accelerator often functions as a co-processor to the CPU.

The term "floating-point accelerator" suggests a physically

larger system, often an extra circuit board, whereas a

"floating-point unit" is probably a single chip or even part

of a chip.

(1994-12-01)