Question

Verilog 2001 defines a real data type, and the system functions $realtobits and $bitstoreal to permit exact bit pattern transfers between a real and a 64 bit vector. SystemVerilog adds the shortreal type, and in a parallel manner, $shortrealtobits and $bitstoshortreal are defined to permit exact bit transfers between a shortreal and a 32 bit vector.

[31:0] $shortrealtobits(shortreal_val);
shortreal $bitstoshortreal(bit_val);

$shortrealtobits converts from a shortreal number to the 32-bit representation (vector) of that shortreal number. $bitstoshortreal is the reverse of $shortrealtobits; it converts from the bit pattern to a shortreal number.