[Python-ideas] Adding a half-float (16-bit) type to PEP 3118 (and possibly the struct module?)

[Eli Stevens (Gmail)]

On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 7:32 PM, Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> Just out of curiosity, is the layout of numpy's float16
> based on any existing standard, or is it something purely
> invented by numpy?
>
> If it's a standard format, that would lend more weight
> to the idea of supporting it in the buffer interface.

Per my understanding (I haven't gone and cross-checked the code with
the spec, however), it's based on IEEE 754-2008:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_precision_floating-point_format

Eli