[bsder]

Denorms basically don't occur except in very specific numerical cirumstances, so everybody treats these things as unique.

This actually had a significant impact on the implementation of IEEE754 on the DEC Alpha chips. The DEC Alpha microprocessors used a software trap whenever a denormal was encountered.

This was a fine idea--until you start emulating an x86 and discover that one of the big programs you want to support--AutoCAD--buries things into denormals and your performance is dog-slow.