Unnormalized Floating Point Arithmetic
Robert L. Ashenhurst, N. Metropolis · Journal of the ACM · 1959
Algorithms for floating point computer arithmetic are described, in which fractional parts are not subject to the usual normalization convention. These algorithms give results in a form which furnishes some indication of their degree of precision. An analysis of one-stage error propagation is developed for each operation; a suggested statistical model for long-run error propagation is also set forth.