Consider the IEEE-754 single precision floating point numbers $P = \text{0xC1800000}$ and $Q = \text{0x3F5C2EF4}$. Which one of the following corresponds to the product of these numbers (i.e., $P \times Q$), represented in the IEEE-754 single precision format?

1. Deconstruct $P$ (0xC1800000):

   • Binary: 1 10000011 00000000000000000000000

   • Sign bit $S_P = 1$ (negative)

   • Biased exponent $E_P = 131 \implies e_P = 131 - 127 = 4$

   • Mantissa $M_P = 1.0_2$

   • Value $P = -1.0 \times 2^4 = -16$

2. Deconstruct $Q$ (0x3F5C2EF4):

   • Binary: 0 01111110 10111000010111011110100

   • Sign bit $S_Q = 0$ (positive)

   • Biased exponent $E_Q = 126 \implies e_Q = 126 - 127 = -1$

   • Value $Q = +1.M_Q \times 2^{-1}$

3. Compute Product $P \times Q$:

   • Sign bit: $1 \oplus 0 = 1$ (negative)

   • Exponent: $e_{\text{res}} = e_P + e_Q = 4 + (-1) = 3$

   • Biased exponent $E_{\text{res}} = 3 + 127 = 130 = 10000010_2$

   • Mantissa: $1.0 \times 1.M_Q = 1.M_Q$ (fraction bits remain identical to $Q$)

4. Encode Result:

   • Binary: 1 10000010 1011100...

   • Hexadecimal: 0xC15C2EF4

Thus, C is the correct option.