--- lib/erl_interface/src/misc/putget.h.orig	2008-07-10 11:50:30.068128000 -0400
+++ lib/erl_interface/src/misc/putget.h	2008-07-10 17:42:02.273245000 -0400
@@ -51,6 +51,18 @@
   (s) += 4; \
 } while (0)
 
+#define put64be(s,n) do {  \
+  (s)[0] = ((n) >>  56) & 0xff; \
+  (s)[1] = ((n) >>  48) & 0xff; \
+  (s)[2] = ((n) >>  40) & 0xff; \
+  (s)[3] = ((n) >>  32) & 0xff; \
+  (s)[4] = ((n) >>  24) & 0xff; \
+  (s)[5] = ((n) >>  16) & 0xff; \
+  (s)[6] = ((n) >>  8)  & 0xff; \
+  (s)[7] = (n) & 0xff; \
+  (s) += 8; \
+} while (0)
+
 #define get8(s) \
      ((s) += 1, \
       ((unsigned char *)(s))[-1] & 0xff)
@@ -79,4 +91,15 @@
        (((unsigned char *)(s))[-2] << 8) | \
        ((unsigned char *)(s))[-1]))
      
+#define get64be(s) \
+     ((s) += 8, \
+      (((unsigned long long)((unsigned char *)(s))[-8] << 56) | \
+       ((unsigned long long)((unsigned char *)(s))[-7] << 48) | \
+       ((unsigned long long)((unsigned char *)(s))[-6] << 40) | \
+       ((unsigned long long)((unsigned char *)(s))[-5] << 32) | \
+       ((unsigned long long)((unsigned char *)(s))[-4] << 24) | \
+       ((unsigned long long)((unsigned char *)(s))[-3] << 16) | \
+       ((unsigned long long)((unsigned char *)(s))[-2] << 8)  | \
+        (unsigned long long)((unsigned char *)(s))[-1]))
+
 #endif /* _PUTGET_H */
--- lib/erl_interface/src/decode/decode_double.c.orig	2008-07-10 10:47:18.488729000 -0400
+++ lib/erl_interface/src/decode/decode_double.c	2008-07-10 15:52:07.087747000 -0400
@@ -20,18 +20,51 @@
 #include "eiext.h"
 #include "putget.h"
 
-
 int ei_decode_double(const char *buf, int *index, double *p)
 {
   const char *s = buf + *index;
   const char *s0 = s;
   double f;
 
-  if (get8(s) != ERL_FLOAT_EXT) return -1;
-  
+  switch (get8(s)) {
+    case ERL_FLOAT_EXT:
   if (sscanf(s, "%lf", &f) != 1) return -1;
-
   s += 31;
+      break;
+    case NEW_FLOAT_EXT: {
+      // IEEE 754 decoder
+      const unsigned int bits    = 64;
+      const unsigned int expbits = 11;
+      const unsigned int significantbits = bits - expbits - 1; // -1 for sign bit
+      unsigned long long i = get64be(s);
+      long long shift;
+      unsigned bias;
+      
+      if (!p)
+        break;
+      else if (i == 0)
+        f = 0.0;
+      else {
+        // get the significant
+        f  = (i & ((1LL << significantbits)-1)); // mask
+        f /= (1LL << significantbits);           // convert back to float
+        f += 1.0f;                               // add the one back on
+
+        // get the exponent
+        bias  = (1 << (expbits-1)) - 1;
+        shift = ((i >> significantbits) & ((1LL << expbits)-1)) - bias;
+        while (shift > 0) { f *= 2.0; shift--; }
+        while (shift < 0) { f /= 2.0; shift++; }
+
+        // signness
+        f *= (i >> (bits-1)) & 1 ? -1.0: 1.0;
+      }
+      break;
+    }
+    default:
+      return -1;
+  }
+
   if (p) *p = f;
   *index += s-s0; 
   return 0; 
--- lib/erl_interface/src/encode/encode_double.c.orig	2008-07-10 12:12:57.591860000 -0400
+++ lib/erl_interface/src/encode/encode_double.c	2008-07-10 16:08:31.248148000 -0400
@@ -26,16 +26,56 @@
   char *s = buf + *index;
   char *s0 = s;
 
-  if (!buf) s ++;
-  else {
+  #ifdef USE_OLD_FLOAT_ENCODER
+  const int old_format = 1;
+  #else
+  const int old_format = 0;
+  #endif
+
+  if (!buf) 
+    s = old_format ? s+32 : s+9;
+  else if (old_format) {
     put8(s,ERL_FLOAT_EXT);
     memset(s, 0, 31);
     sprintf(s, "%.20e", p);
-  }
   s += 31;
+  } else { /* use IEEE 754 format */
+    const unsigned int  bits    = 64;
+    const unsigned int  expbits = 11;
+    const unsigned int  significantbits = bits - expbits - 1; // -1 for sign bit
+    long long           sign, exp, significant;
+    long double         norm;
+    int                 shift;
 
-    *index += s-s0; 
+    put8(s, NEW_FLOAT_EXT);
+    memset(s, 0, 8);
+    
+	 if (p == 0.0) 
+      s += 8;
+    else {
+      // check sign and begin normalization
+      if (p < 0) { sign = 1; norm = -p; }
+      else       { sign = 0; norm =  p; }
+
+      // get the normalized form of p and track the exponent
+      shift = 0;
+      while(norm >= 2.0) { norm /= 2.0; shift++; }
+      while(norm < 1.0)  { norm *= 2.0; shift--; }
+      norm = norm - 1.0;
 
+      // calculate the binary form (non-float) of the significant data
+      significant = (long long) ( norm * ((1LL << significantbits) + 0.5f) );
+
+      // get the biased exponent
+      exp = shift + ((1 << (expbits-1)) - 1); // shift + bias
+
+      // get the final answer
+      exp = (sign << (bits-1)) | (exp << (bits-expbits-1)) | significant;
+      put64be(s, exp);
+    }
+  }
+
+  *index += s-s0; 
   return 0; 
 }
 
--- lib/erl_interface/include/ei.h.orig	2008-07-10 10:46:09.056225000 -0400
+++ lib/erl_interface/include/ei.h	2008-07-10 16:06:12.780756000 -0400
@@ -109,6 +109,7 @@
 #define ERL_SMALL_INTEGER_EXT 'a'
 #define ERL_INTEGER_EXT       'b'
 #define ERL_FLOAT_EXT         'c'
+#define NEW_FLOAT_EXT         'F'
 #define ERL_ATOM_EXT          'd'
 #define ERL_REFERENCE_EXT     'e'
 #define ERL_NEW_REFERENCE_EXT 'r'