scope:

This part of ISO/IEC 10967 defines the properties of integer and floating point data types on computer systems to ensure that the processing of arithmetic data can be undertaken in a reliable and predictable manner. Emphasis is placed on documenting the existing variation between systems, not on the elimination of such variation. The requirements of this part of ISO/IEC 10967 shall be in addition to those that may be specified in other standards, such as those for programming languages (See clause 7).

It is not the purpose of this part of ISO/IEC 10967 to ensure that an arbitrary numerical function can be so encoded as to produce acceptable results on all conforming systems. Rather, the goal is to ensure that the properties of arithmetic on a conforming system are made available to the programmer.

Therefore, it is not reasonable to demand that a substantive piece of software run on every implementation that can claim conformity to this part of ISO/IEc 10967.

An implementor may choose any combination of hardware and software support to meet the specifications of this part of ISO/IEC 10967. It is the arithmetic environment, as seen by the user, that does or does not conform to the specifications.

The term implementation (of this part of ISO/IEC 10967) denotes the total arithmetic environment, including hardware, language processors, exception handling facilities, subroutine libraries, other software, and all pertinent documentation.