In case of CPUs that don't have floating-point arithmetic unit (like many of fixed-point DSPs), how does the C compiler handles float types and their operations?

I understand how to convert from floating-point to fixed-point, but the question is about representation of floating-point in fixed-point hardware.

Edit

To clarify question:

If variables are of fixed point type, compiler generated code will ideally utilize fixed-point hardware instructions for it which is very efficient, but if variables are of float type, compiler needs to have software implementation which uses fixed-point hardware instructions to simulate floating-point and execute it?