[fitsbits] 16-bit floats {External}

[Steve Allen]

On Mon 2025-07-28T14:27:40+0200 Richard J. Mathar via fitsbits hath writ:
> In summary, even if the storage format is supported (as disk capacities
> and streaming bandswiths *are always* an issue), there will be a small run-time
> overhead by parsing the 16bit-floats in and out of their 32bit-float processor registers.

In the beginning we had a similar problem with VAX hardware
which used its own non-IEEE floating point representation.
Software on VAX hardware had to convert on the way in and out,
but it became clear that the IEEE fp standard was the right thing
to use for data storage.

--
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