--- a/LimitedPrecisionReal.st	Sat Mar 06 11:06:53 2010 +0100
+++ b/LimitedPrecisionReal.st	Sat Mar 06 12:27:34 2010 +0100
@@ -524,13 +524,25 @@
      Implementation takes care of preserving class and avoiding overflow/underflow
      Thanks to Nicolas Cellier for this code"
 
-    |half two|
+    |half two h1 h2|
 
     two := self coerce:2.
 
     anInteger abs highBit >= (self class numBitsInExponent - 2) ifTrue:[
         half := anInteger // 2.
-        ^ (self * (two raisedToInteger: half)) * (two raisedToInteger: anInteger - half)
+
+        anInteger even ifTrue:[
+            "/ halves are equal
+            h2 := h1 := (two raisedToInteger: half).
+        ] ifFalse:[
+            h1 := (two raisedToInteger: half).
+            anInteger > 0 ifTrue:[
+                h2 := h1 * two.
+            ] ifFalse:[
+                h2 := (two raisedToInteger: anInteger - half).
+            ].
+        ].
+        ^ (self * h1) * h2
     ] ifFalse: [
         ^ self * (two raisedToInteger: anInteger).
     ]
@@ -539,7 +551,20 @@
      (1 asShortFloat timesTwoPower: 3) class = ShortFloat.
      (1 asLongFloat timesTwoPower: 1024).
      (1 asFloat timesTwoPower: -1024) timesTwoPower: 1024.
-     (2.0 timesTwoPower: -150) timesTwoPower: 150
+
+     (2.0 asShortFloat timesTwoPower: -150) timesTwoPower: 150    
+     (2.0 asLongFloat timesTwoPower: -150) timesTwoPower: 150   
+     (2.0 asFloat timesTwoPower: -150) timesTwoPower: 150       
+
+     (2.0 asShortFloat timesTwoPower: -149) timesTwoPower: 149  
+     (2.0 asLongFloat timesTwoPower: -149) timesTwoPower: 149    
+     (2.0 asFloat timesTwoPower: -149) timesTwoPower: 149        
+
+     Time millisecondsToRun:[
+        1000000 timesRepeat:[
+            (2.0 timesTwoPower: 150)
+        ]
+     ]  
     "
 ! !
 
@@ -1173,11 +1198,11 @@
 !LimitedPrecisionReal class methodsFor:'documentation'!
 
 version
-    ^ '$Header: /cvs/stx/stx/libbasic/LimitedPrecisionReal.st,v 1.71 2010-03-06 10:04:54 cg Exp $'
+    ^ '$Header: /cvs/stx/stx/libbasic/LimitedPrecisionReal.st,v 1.72 2010-03-06 11:27:34 cg Exp $'
 !
 
 version_CVS
-    ^ '$Header: /cvs/stx/stx/libbasic/LimitedPrecisionReal.st,v 1.71 2010-03-06 10:04:54 cg Exp $'
+    ^ '$Header: /cvs/stx/stx/libbasic/LimitedPrecisionReal.st,v 1.72 2010-03-06 11:27:34 cg Exp $'
 ! !
 
 LimitedPrecisionReal initialize!