Alternatives
Adding BCD numbers using these opcodes is a complex task, and requires many instructions to add even modest numbers. It can also require a large amount of memory.
All integer calculations are exact, so the radix of the number representation is not important for accuracy. Therefore even financial software today usually stores values in binary representation and only converts to decimal for input and output.
On an x86 processor calculations with binary numbers are usually a lot faster than the same calculations with BCD numbers.
Read more about this topic: Intel BCD Opcode
Famous quotes containing the word alternatives:
“Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.”
—Ann Oakley (b. 1944)
“The literal alternatives to [abortion] are suicide, motherhood, and, some would add, madness. Consequently, there is some confusion, discomfort, and cynicism greeting efforts to “find” or “emphasize” or “identify” alternatives to abortion.”
—Connie J. Downey (b. 1934)
“The last alternatives they face
Of face, without the life to save,
Being from all salvation weaned
A stag charged both at heel and head:
Who would come back is turned a fiend
Instructed by the fiery dead.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)