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Extended precision
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<p>Extended precision refers to <a href="/facts/Floating-point_arithmetic/eIckahxe">floating-point</a> number formats that provide greater <a href="/facts/Precision_(computer_science)/6rgoFI6d">precision</a> than the basic floating-point formats. Extended-precision formats support a basic format by <a href="/facts/Floating-point_error_mitigation/80CGowHC">minimizing roundoff and overflow errors</a> in intermediate values of expressions on the base format. In contrast to <i>extended precision</i>, <a href="/facts/Arbitrary-precision_arithmetic/cXxc8yB2">arbitrary-precision arithmetic</a> refers to implementations of much larger numeric types (with a storage count that usually is not a power of two) using special software (or, rarely, hardware). </p>