Composite arithmetic: proposal for a new standard
W.N. Holmes · Computer · 1997
A general-purpose arithmetic standard could give general computation the kind of reliability and stability that the floating-point standard brought to scientific computing. The author describes composite arithmetic as a possible starting point. He describes a formatting scheme for storage and display of exact and inexact numbers and an extended arithmetic with a number format as its basis. He also introduces possibilities for implementing the arithmetic and discusses the interface between the representations and the arithmetic.