1. A system for performing floating point computation in connection with numbers in a base floating point representation that defines a plurality of formats, including a normalized format and a de-normalized format, the system comprising: A. a base to common representation converter configured to convert said numbers to a common floating point representation defining a unitary normalized format, thereby generating converted numbers; and B. a processor configured to perform a mathematical operation of at least one predetermined type in connection with the converted numbers generated by said representation converter.