Fixed-Point and Floating-Point Basics

In digital hardware, numbers are stored in binary words. A binary word is a fixed-length sequence of bits (1s and 0s). How hardware components or software functions interpret this sequence of 1s and 0s is defined by the data type. Binary numbers are represented as either fixed-point or floating-point data types.

To simulate the mathematical behavior of computer hardware, or to generate efficient code from a model, you can use Fixed-Point Designer™ to control the numeric data types of signals and parameters.