Apparatus and method for performing a shift operation in a multiplier array circuit
US4887232A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 15, 1987 |
| Grant date | Dec 12, 1989 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 15, 2007 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F7/49947
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
In floating point operations, it is necessary to align the fractions of the floating point operands before addition or subtraction operations can be executed. This fraction alignment is performed by a shifting operation, typically using dedicated apparatus such as a barrel shifter. While the dedicated apparatus provides high performance in the execution of the shifting operation, this performance is accomplished by reserving a portion of the substrate area for apparatus implementation. To avoid the use of dedicated apparatus, the shifting operation is performed in a multiplier unit, according to the present invention, by entering the number to be shifted in the multiplicand register of the multiplier unit while entering appropriate control signals in the multiplier register. In this manner, a shifting operation can be performed without dedicated apparatus and with minor impact on performance.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.