Answer from cs61c-ev (Roland Carlos 16583196) for Question 2
A subnormal is a number that is not normalized (normalized is a number that has no leading 0s). It is important because a normalized number has three advantages. It simplifies exchange of data that includes floating-point numbers; it simplifies the floating-point arithmetic algorithms to know that number will always be in this form; and it increases the accuracy of the numbers that can be stored in a word, since the unnecessary leading 0s are replaced by real digits to the right of the binary point.