Number of significand bits in long double?

[M. Warner Losh]

In message: <42F36675.2090602 at mail.ru>
            Denis Antrushin <DAntrushin at mail.ru> writes:
: Steve Kargl wrote:
: > Can someone confirm or refute that the working number
: > of bits in the significand of long double type is 53
: > on i386?
: Yes, this is what IEEE 754 requires.
: (See http://docs.sun.com/source/806-3568/ncg_goldberg.html,
: section 'The IEEE Standard')

float and double are defined by the IEEE Standard.  long double isn't
required to be anything, by the IEEE standard.

Warner