The floating-point architecture for a processor consists of the different aspects that affect how programs operating on floating--point data are mapped onto the machine, including:
- How floating-point values are stored and accessed. This is typically via some form of registers.
- The instructions that operate on floating-point data.
- The conventions used for passing floating-point values as arguments to functions and for returning them as results.
- The conventions for how registers are preserved during function calls -- for example, with some registers designated as caller saved, and others as callee saved.
Practices: