Scale factor device for normalizing a binary number

Claim 1

A NORMALIZER DEVICE FOR CONVERTING A BINARY NUMBER FROM NORMAL FORMAT TO A FLOATING POINT FORMAT, SAID NUMBER IN NORMAL FORMAT HAVING N BITS INCLUDING A SIGN BIT AND N-1 BITS ARBITRARILY DIVIDED INTO A PLURALITY OF GROUPS A, B, C . . . IN DESCENDING ORDER OF NUMERICAL SIGNIFICANCE, SAID NUMBER IN FLOATING POINT FORMAT HAVING N BITS INCLUDING A SIGN BIT, A CHARACTERISTIC PORTION HAVING THE SAME NUMBER OF BITS AS SAID GROUP A; AND A MANTISSA PORTION, SAID NORMALIZER COMPRISING: A FIRST REGISTER FOR STORING SAID NUMBER IN SAID NORMAL FORMAT; A SECOND REGISTER FOR STORING A NUMERICAL VALUE; HALF-ADDER MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID FIRST AND SECOND REGISTERS FOR PRODUCING N-1 SUM BITS, SAID SUM BITS BEING GROUPED IN CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GROUPS OF SAID NUMBER IN SAID FIRST REGISTER; GROUP SELECT MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID SUM BITS FOR SELECTIVELY PRODUCING ONE OF A PLURALITY OF GROUP SELECT SIGNALS CORRESPONDING TO THE GROUP CONTAINING THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BIT OF SAID NUMBER; A PLURALITY OF BIT SELECTORS EACH RESPONSIVE TO ONE OF SAID GROUP SELECT SIGNALS AND THE SUM BITS OF THE CORRESPONDING GROUP FOR PRODUCING BIT SELECT SIGNALS CORRESPONDING TO THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BIT OF THE SELECTED GROUP; TRANSLATOR MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID GROUP SELECT AND BIT SELECT SIGNALS FOR PRODUCING A LEFT SHIFT COUNT; A THIRD REGISTER; AS RIGHT CIRCULAR SHIFT MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID FIRST REGISTER FOR ENTERING THE SIGN AND MANTISSA OF SAID NUMBER INTO THIRD REGISTER IN SHIFTED POSITION; MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID LEFT SHIFT COUNT FOR PRODUCING AS RIGHT SHIFT COUNT, SAID RIGHT SHIFT COUNT BEING APPLIED TO SAID RIGHT CIRCULAR SHIFT MEANS; AND CHARACTERISTIC MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE ABSENCE OF SAID GROUP A SELECT SIGNAL AND THE SIGN OF SAID NUMBER FOR ENTERING SAID LEFT SHIFT COUNT INTO SAID THIRD REGISTER AS THE CHARACTERISTIC.