Guide to using the Floating Point simulator, version 1.0  

Download and install the software.

Start the application and choose the language, press 1 and enter to choose english or 2 and enter to choose italian. Then you get a menu where you have to choose the converter to use; press 1 and enter to choose binary-decimal converter or press 2 and enter to choose decimal-binary converter or another number and enter to exit.

If you chose binary-decimal converter:
You have to insert the binary number in floating point, using from 9 to 32 characters(bit). The first bit will specify the sign(1 negative - 0 positive); the exponent is represented from second to ninth bit, it tells how many positions the point is moved and the direction of its shift. The exponent is in excess 127 (e.g.: exp=129--> mantissa 1,11011=> 111,011 or exp=125-->mantissa 1,11011=> 0,0111011); when the mantissa is shorter than 23 bits it is extended to the left with 0-bits. The number (1,mantissa)*2^(exp-127) is the binary number in floating point that has to be converted in decimal fixed point. If the number is positive it must be lower than "01001000111111111111111111111111" and greater than or equal to "00111001111111111111111111111111" (e.g.: 01000000011), that is, the exponent must be in the range between 115 and 145; if the number is negative it must be lower than "11001000111111111111111111111111" and greater than or equal to "101110010111111111111111111111111" (e.g.: 11000000011), that is, the exponent must be in the range between 114 and 145; otherwise, a new binary number is to be inserted. After a valid number is inserted you can see the value 1,mantissa multiplied by 2^n (with n equal to the signed decimal exponent), the binary value in fixed point and the final result in decimal fixed point.

If you chose the decimal-binary converter:
You need to insert a decimal fixed point number (or also an integer) that contains a maximum of 22 digits, using the  symbol "." to separate the integer part from the fractional one. The input must be in the range between -8388607 and 8388607. If the program won't crash, the output will be a binary floating point number.

Finally the program asks the user whether she or he would like to restart the converter; to do this the user has to type 0 and press enter otherwise any other key and then enter may be pressed, to terminate the program.