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.NET 4.0 now has a new data type, System.Numeric.BigInteger. From what I understand, this can hold numbers that have, up to, 1 million digits. Simple arithmetic operations can be performed on this number. What I am wondering is how Microsoft implemented such a thing, given that it would obviously exceed 32-bits and even 64-bits. How does this not overflow?
Arithmetic operations have been performed on structures that exceed the native integer (and floating point) sizes for quite some time. This is ordinarily done by turning a single conceptual arithmetic operation on the larger structure (addition, for example), into a series of operations upon multiple native types.