Because single precision numbers use only 32 bits, they require less memory than double-precision numbers while still offering many of the benefits of floating point arithmetic. The half-precision data type occupies only 16 bits of memory, but its floating-point representation enables it to handle wider dynamic ranges than integer or fixed-point data types of the same size. You can use a CustomFloat object to define a floating-point numeric data type with specified word length and mantissa length.