What is Math Coprocessor?
| Math Coprocessors |
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A coprocessor is special processing unit that assists the CPU in performing certain operations. A math coprocessor is a chip or part of a chip that specializes in doing math, extending the capabilities of a CPU in a transparent manner. It is a piece of hardware that attaches to the motherboard or is part of the CPU. Most of the time a math coprocessor performs mathematical computations, particularly floating-point operations. Math coprocessors are also called numeric coprocessors or floating point units (FPU). The use of floating-point numbers enables a binary representation of not only integers, but also fractional values over a wide range. A common application of floating-point numbers is in scientific applications, where very small and very large numbers must be accurately expressed. But floating-point numbers are also useful for business applications such as computing interest, and in the geometric calculations inherent in CAD/CAM processing. In addition to being able to quickly execute, load, or store operations on floating-point numbers, coprocessors can directly perform all the basic arithmetic operations on them. Besides being able to add, subtract, multiply and divide floating-point numbers, they can also operate on them to perform comparisons, square roots, logarithms, sine, cosine, tangent, absolute value, and remainders. |
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