A method for reducing a number of bits for representing a value is disclosed. A first value represented with a first number of bits is transformed to a second value represented with a second number of bits, wherein the first number of bits is greater than the second number of bits. The transformed second value is scaled by a scale factor to a third value. Transforming includes selecting a target window with a width of a third number of bits, wherein the third number of bits is smaller than the first number of bits. Transforming further includes saturating the first value to a most significant bit (MSB) within the selected target window and extracting bits within the selected target window from the saturated value.