Milestone-Proposal:IEEE Standard 754 for Floating Point Arithmetic

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Docket #:2021-06

This Proposal has been approved, and is now a Milestone


To the proposer’s knowledge, is this achievement subject to litigation? No

Is the achievement you are proposing more than 25 years old? Yes

Is the achievement you are proposing within IEEE’s designated fields as defined by IEEE Bylaw I-104.11, namely: Engineering, Computer Sciences and Information Technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical Communications, Education, Management, and Law and Policy. Yes

Did the achievement provide a meaningful benefit for humanity? Yes

Was it of at least regional importance? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to pay for the milestone plaque(s)? Yes

Has an IEEE Organizational Unit agreed to arrange the dedication ceremony? Yes

Has the IEEE Section in which the milestone is located agreed to take responsibility for the plaque after it is dedicated? Yes

Has the owner of the site agreed to have it designated as an IEEE Milestone? Yes


Year or range of years in which the achievement occurred:

1977-1985

Title of the proposed milestone:

IEEE Standard 754 for Floating Point Arithmetic

Plaque citation summarizing the achievement and its significance:

In 1978, faculty and students at U.C. Berkeley drafted what became IEEE Standard 754 for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic. Inspired by ongoing collaboration with Intel, the proposal revolutionized numerical computing. Its robust arithmetic and standard data types promoted unprecedented program reliability and portability. By 1980, microprocessor companies were already implementing the proposal, which was formally approved in 1985. IEEE 754 remains the standard for reliable numerical computing.

200-250 word abstract describing the significance of the technical achievement being proposed, the person(s) involved, historical context, humanitarian and social impact, as well as any possible controversies the advocate might need to review.


IEEE technical societies and technical councils within whose fields of interest the Milestone proposal resides.


In what IEEE section(s) does it reside?

Oakland / East Bay

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) which have agreed to sponsor the Milestone:

IEEE Organizational Unit(s) paying for milestone plaque(s):


IEEE Organizational Unit(s) arranging the dedication ceremony:


IEEE section(s) monitoring the plaque(s):


Milestone proposer(s):


Please note: your email address and contact information will be masked on the website for privacy reasons. Only IEEE History Center Staff will be able to view the email address.

Street address(es) and GPS coordinates in decimal form of the intended milestone plaque site(s):

Soda Hall37.875624, -122.258882

Describe briefly the intended site(s) of the milestone plaque(s). The intended site(s) must have a direct connection with the achievement (e.g. where developed, invented, tested, demonstrated, installed, or operated, etc.). A museum where a device or example of the technology is displayed, or the university where the inventor studied, are not, in themselves, sufficient connection for a milestone plaque.

Please give the address(es) of the plaque site(s) (GPS coordinates if you have them). Also please give the details of the mounting, i.e. on the outside of the building, in the ground floor entrance hall, on a plinth on the grounds, etc. If visitors to the plaque site will need to go through security, or make an appointment, please give the contact information visitors will need. Soda Hall on the U.C. Berkeley campus

Are the original buildings extant?

Yes

Details of the plaque mounting:


How is the site protected/secured, and in what ways is it accessible to the public?


Who is the present owner of the site(s)?

Regents of the University of California

What is the historical significance of the work (its technological, scientific, or social importance)? If personal names are included in citation, include justification here. (see section 6 of Milestone Guidelines)

IEEE 754 marks a unique opportunity in history, when technology could take a huge leap forward. With 8-bit microprocessors well-established, semiconductor technology was advancing rapidly and the prospect for scientific, engineering, and financial computation was just ahead. The mainframe and minicomputer industries into tribes of binary, octal, and hexadecimal arithmetic on data elements of varying sizes. Portability of numerical codes was a nightmare. A new standard for floating point arithmetic offered the prospect of high quality, dependable arithmetic across a wide range of computers and programming languages.

What obstacles (technical, political, geographic) needed to be overcome?

Final approval of IEEE 754 in 1985 spanned an elapsed 8 years from the founding of the subcommittee in 1977. That's a remarkable time period, given that the proposal was largely established by 1980. Technology was not a problem. Features of the standard were understood and known to be feasible. But as with any advance, there was some resistance to change from what had been done, especially what had been done most recently. And there was some competitive tension among various players. Given the wide range of possibilities in a new arithmetic system ,there ideas from different academic and industrial corners. Every contribution required response.

What features set this work apart from similar achievements?

What sets IEEE 754 apart is its sheer scope. The floating point standard has influenced every processor design of the past four decades and more. Even the supercomputers adopted the standard. And now the new generation of machine learning processors adapt the features of 754 to their specialized, narrow numeric types. The standard also has reach into programming languages, an area much slower to incorporate features of the standard but nonetheless an area that continues to advance. IEEE 754 is a one-of-a-kind standard whose like may never be seen again.

Supporting texts and citations to establish the dates, location, and importance of the achievement: Minimum of five (5), but as many as needed to support the milestone, such as patents, contemporary newspaper articles, journal articles, or chapters in scholarly books. 'Scholarly' is defined as peer-reviewed, with references, and published. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. At least one of the references must be from a scholarly book or journal article. All supporting materials must be in English, or accompanied by an English translation.


Supporting materials (supported formats: GIF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, DOC): All supporting materials must be in English, or if not in English, accompanied by an English translation. You must supply the texts or excerpts themselves, not just the references. For documents that are copyright-encumbered, or which you do not have rights to post, email the documents themselves to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please see the Milestone Program Guidelines for more information.


Please email a jpeg or PDF a letter in English, or with English translation, from the site owner(s) giving permission to place IEEE milestone plaque on the property, and a letter (or forwarded email) from the appropriate Section Chair supporting the Milestone application to ieee-history@ieee.org with the subject line "Attention: Milestone Administrator." Note that there are multiple texts of the letter depending on whether an IEEE organizational unit other than the section will be paying for the plaque(s).

Please recommend reviewers by emailing their names and email addresses to ieee-history@ieee.org. Please include the docket number and brief title of your proposal in the subject line of all emails.