Number Format

There are two lengths of number: 17 bit shorts and 35 bit longs, the extra 'sandwich' digit being due to the first digit being unusable. The numbers are stored in 2s complement form, with the leftmost bit as the sign.

The numbers can be interpreted in two ways, either as integers or reals. For integers, the implied binary point is at the right hand end of the number, whereas for reals it is positioned immediately to the right of the sign bit. This gives a real in the range -1 < x < 1.