diff --git a/src/DoubleDouble.jl b/src/DoubleDouble.jl
index 5511147..7c2ec5c 100644
--- a/src/DoubleDouble.jl
+++ b/src/DoubleDouble.jl
@@ -31,19 +31,16 @@ end
 Double{T<:AbstractFloat}(u::T, v::T) = Double{T}(u, v)
 Double{T<:AbstractFloat}(x::T) = Double(x, zero(T))
 
-
-const half64 = 1.34217729e8
-const half32 = 4097f0
-const half16 = Float16(33.0)
-const halfBig = 3.402823669209384634633746074317682114570000000000000000000000000000000000000000e+38
-# 6.805647338418769269267492148635364229120000000000000000000000000000000000000000e38
-
-# round floats to half-precision
-# TODO: fix overflow for large values
-halfprec(x::Float64) = (p = x*half64; (x-p)+p) # signif(x,26,2) for 26 is 6.7108865e7, this seems like 27
-halfprec(x::Float32) = (p = x*half32; (x-p)+p) # float32(signif(x,12,2))
-halfprec(x::Float16) = (p = x*half16; (x-p)+p) # float16(signif(x,5,2))
-halfprec(x::BigFloat) = (p = x*halfBig; (x-p)+p) # BigFloat(signif(x,128,2))
+# use Veltkamp splitting to remove trailing digits
+# see "Handbook of Floating-point Arithmetic", §4.4.1
+# TODO:
+#  - fix overflow for large values
+#  - use fma when available
+function halfprec{T<:AbstractFloat}(x::T)
+    c = T((1 << cld(precision(T),2)) + 1)
+    p = x*c
+    (x-p)+p
+end
 
 function splitprec(x::AbstractFloat)
     h = halfprec(x)
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 5158aeb..a3cc38a 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -64,3 +64,9 @@ a = Double(big"3.1")
 @test Double{Float32}(3) === Double{Float32}(3.0f0, 0.0f0)
 @test Single{Float32}(BigFloat(3)) === Single{Float32}(3.0f0)
 @test Double{Float32}(BigFloat(3)) === Double{Float32}(3.0f0, 0.0f0)
+
+
+# issue #30
+x, y = Single(Float16(0.9775)), Single(Float16(0.5156))
+d = x*y
+@test widen(d.hi) + widen(d.lo) == widen(x.hi) * widen(y.hi)