Comparison between Binary64 and Decimal64 Floating-Point Numbers

Abstract

We introduce a software-oriented algorithm that allows one to quickly compare a binary64 floating-point (FP) number and a decimal64 FP number, assuming the "binary encoding" of the decimal formats specified by the IEEE 754-2008 standard for FP arithmetic is used. It is a two-step algorithm: a first pass, based on the exponents only, makes it possible to quickly eliminate most cases, then when the first pass does not suffice, a more accurate second pass is required. We provide an implementation of several variants of our algorithm, and compare them.