IEEE floating point format

[Manoj Joshi]

I am not sure if this is the right note to ask this 
question, but here it goes...

What is the format for the IEEE floating point storage
convention? In other words (for a 32-bit float) where is 
the exact position of the 4 fields (1 Byte each):

<mantissa sign> <mantissa> <exponent> <exponent sign>

Also what is the size (in bits) of each of these?

Similarly how is this stored in a 64-bit double precision
real number? 

Are there any standard routines to convert real numbers 
in different architectures for UNIX? I realize that MSC 
has a few routines for DOS.

Thanks in advance for the help in this regard.

Manoj Joshi
manoj%hpldas5.HP.COM at hp-sde
(415)857-7099