Give an algorithm that, given two IEEE single format floating point

numbers x and y$,$ determines whether x is less than, equal to$,$ or greater than y$,$ by

comparing their representations bitwise from left to right, stopping as soon as the first

differing bit is encountered. Assume that neither x nor y is $\backslash$pm $0,\backslash$pm $\backslash$infty $,$ or NaN. The fact

that such a comparison can be done easily motivates biased exponent representation.

It also justifies referring to the left end of the representation as the $$most significant$$

end.