1. A computer implemented method for performing floating point operations, the computer implemented method comprising: providing, in a processor that includes fixed point operations, a group of instructions within the processor that includes a floating point representation in a memory of the processor wherein the floating point representation comprises an exponent and mantissa each of which includes real and imaginary components, wherein the floating point representation utilizes a common exponent for the real and imaginary components of the floating point representation, wherein at least one of the real and imaginary mantissa components of the floating point representation is normalized.