Computer Arithmetic Circuit Design

Chapter 14

High-Radix Dividers

Basics of High-Radix Division Radix-2 SRT Division Using Carry-Save Adders Choosing the Quotient Digits Radix-4 SRT Division General High-Radix divider

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Basics of High-Radix Division

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Radix-4 Division in Dot Notation

Interesting dividers have radix r = 2b Reduces the number of cycles of by a factor of b

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Difficulty of High-Radix Division

Guessing the correct quotient digit is more difficult. Division is naturally a sequential process:
Guess a quotient digit qk-j Compute term qk-j(rkd) Compute partial remainder

s(j) = rs(j-1) qk-1(rkd)

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Carry-Save Remainders
More important for speed than high-radix. Lead to large performance increases by replacing carry-propagate adder with carry-save adder. Key to keeping remainder in carry-save form is: Redundancy in the representation of q.
Allows less precise guessing of quotient digit based on approximate magnitude of partial remainder. More redundancy less precision required.

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Review of Non-Restoring Division (fractional operands)

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Using q-j in {-1,0,1}

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A Big Problem
Q: How can you tell if shifted partial remainder is in [-d,d) ? A: You have to perform trial subtractions. Q: Can you avoid trial subtractions ? A: Sweeny, Robertson, and Tocher-- SRT division.

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Radix-2 SRT Division

Assume d 1/2 (normalized) Restrict partial remainder to constant range [-1/2, 1/2) instead of [-d, d )
May require shifting dividend = initial partial remainder so that: 1/2 s (0) -1/2

Once in the proper range, subsequent partial remainders will stay in the range

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Radix-2 SRT Division

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Simplified Digit Selection

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Final Steps
{-1,1}-quotient conversion algorithm will not work to convert [-1, 1]-quotient to twos-complement.
On-the-fly algorithm by Ercedovac 1987, or Subtract negative digits from positive digits.

Still requires a final correction step to make remainder positive.

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Using Carry-Save Adders

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Carry-Save Partial Remainders

Two numbers sum to the actual partial remainder. To perform exact comparison, a full CPA would be required. Overlaps in the selection regions allow us to perform approximate comparisons without risk of choosing a wrong digit.

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Carry-Save Partial Remainders

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Tolerating Truncation Error

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Digit Selection

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Radix-2 Divider with CSA

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Select Logic
Fast 4-bit CPA, plus decode logic, or 256 2 Lookup table, or 8 input, 2 output PLA

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CLA with SRT Division?

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Choosing Quotient Digits Using a P-D Plot

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Putting Both Charts Together

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Radix-4 SRT Division

Radix r = 2 b , b > 1 Partial remainder kept in stored-carry form. Requires a redundant digit set. Example:
radix 4 digit set [-3, 3]

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New vs. Shifted Old Partial Remainder

Radix = 4 Digit Set = [ -3, 3 ]

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p-d Plot for Radix-4, [-3, 3 ] SRT Division

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Radix-4 Digit Set [ -2, 2 ]

Avoids having to compute 3d as in digit set [-3, 3]. Fewer comparisons (fewer selection regions). Less redundancy means less overlap in selection regions. Partial remainder must be restricted to ensure convergence.
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Restricting the Range of s

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p-d Plot for Radix-4, [-2, 2 ] SRT Division

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Observations
Restricting digit set to [-2, 2 ] results in less overlap in selection regions. Must examine p and d in greater detail to correctly choose the quotient digit. Staircase boundaries: 4 bits of p and 4 bits of d are required to make the selection.

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Block Diagram

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Intels Pentium Division Bug

Intel used the Radix-4 SRT division algorithm. Quotient selection was implemented as a PLA. The p-d plot was numerically generated. Script to download entries into the PLA inadvertently removed a few table entries from the table. When hit, these missing entries resulted in digit 0, instead of the intended digits 2. These entries are consulted very rarely, and thus the bug was very subtle and difficult to detect.
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General High-Radix Dividers

Radix-8 is possible.
Minimal quotient digit set [-4, 4] Partial remainder restricted to [-4d/7, 4d/7) Requires a 3d multiple

Digit sets with greater redundancy (such as [-7, 7] ) lead to:

Wider overlap regions More comparisons but simpler digit selection More difficult multiples (5, 7)

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