Answer:
If the result is small enough
all the significant bits will be contained in lo,
and hi will contain all zeros.
If the result is small enough
all the significant bits will be contained in lo,
and hi will contain all zeros.
We
will mostly write programs that keep the result
under 32 bits in length.
When this is true, the result of a multiplication
will be in lo.
The significant bits in a positive or unsigned number represented in binary are the most significant 1 bit (the leftmost 1 bit) and all bits to the right of it. For example, the following has 23 significant bits:
0000 0000 0100 0011 0101 0110 1101 1110
The significant bits in a negative number represented in two's complement are the most significant 0 bit (the leftmost 0 bit) and all bits to the right of it. For example, the following has 23 significant bits:
1111 1111 1011 1100 1010 1001 0010 0010
To ensure that a product has no more than 32 significant bits, ensure that the sum of the number of significant bits in each operand is 32 or less. For the programming in this course you will not need to be careful about this.
About how many significant bits do you expect in this product:
01001010 × 00010101