Abstract classes can, indeed, be strictfp, but individual abstract methods can't. I don't know the rationale for this, but that's the way it is.
Since a method overriding a strictfp concrete method does not become implicitly strictfp, strictfp in an abstract method (that is always overridden) would do nothing.
If a method overriding a strictfp method did have to be strictfp, would the same rule apply to synchronized? These are implementation details, not interface specifications like return type. Just as a revised method implementation might be thread-safe without using synchronized, it might produce accurate results without normalizing the intermediate results of calculations.
[ February 08, 2005: Message edited by: Mike Gershman ]