Fast VLSI algorithms for division and square root

Abstract

Real time digital signal processing demands high performance implementations of division and square root. This can only be achieved by the design of fast and efficient arithmetic algorithms which address practical VLSI architectural design issues. In this paper, new algorithms for division and square root are described. The new schemes are based on pre-scaling the operands and modifying the classical SRT method such that the result digits and the remainders are computed concurrently and the computations in adjacent rows are overlapped. Consequently, their performance exceeds that of the SRT methods. The hardware cost for higher radices is considerably more than that of the SRT methods but for many applications, this is not prohibitive. A system of equations is presented which enables both an analysis of the method for any radix and the parameters of implementations to be easily determined. This is illustrated for the case of radix 2 and radix 4. In addition, a highly regular array architecture combining the division and square root method is described.