Division with speculation of quotient digits

Abstract

The speed of SRT-type dividers is mainly determined by the complexity of the quotient-digit selection, so that implementations are limited to low-radix stages. A scheme is presented in which the quotient-digit is speculated and, when this speculation is incorrect, a rollback or a partial advance is performed. This results in a division operation with a shorter cycle time and a variable number of cycles. Several designs have been realized, and a radix-64 implementation that is 30% faster than the fastest conventional implementation (radix-8) at an increase of about 45% in area per quotient bit has been obtained. A radix-16 implementation that is about 10% faster than the radix-8 conventional one, with the additional advantage of requiring about 25% less area per quotient bit, is also shown.<>