Abstract (Luis A. Montalvo)
The development of a new general radix-b division algorithm, based on seminal
ideas proposed by Svoboda and Tung, suitable for VLSI implementation is
presented. The new algorithm overcomes the drawbacks of the Svoboda-Tung
techniques that have prevented the VLSI implementation. First of all, the
proposed algorithm is valid for any radix b >= 2; and next, it avoids the
possible compensation due to overflow on the iteration by re-writing the
two most significant digits of the remainder. This simplifies both the
generation of the multiples of the divisor and the quotient digit selection
function. An analysis of the algorithm shows that a known radix-2 and two
recently published radix-4 division algorithms are particular cases of this
general radix-b algorithm. Finally, since the new algorithm is valid only for
a reduced range of the IEEE normalised divisor, a pre-scaling technique,
based on the multiplication of both the operands by a stepwise approximation
to the reciprocal of the divisor is also presented.
Last modified: March 8, 1995.
Kim Skak Larsen
(kslarsen@imada.sdu.dk)