Design Issues in Floating-Point Division
Stuart F. Oberman, Michael J. Flynn · 1994
Floating-point division is generally regarded as a low frequency, high latency operation in typical floating-point applications. However, the increasing emphasis on high performance graphics and the industry-wide usage of performance benchmarks, such as SPECmarks, forces processor designers to pay close attention to all aspects of floating-point computation. This paper presents the algorithms often utilized for floating-point division, and it also presents implementation alternatives available for designers. Using a system level study as a basis, it is shown how typical floating-point applications can guide the designer in making implementation decisions and trade-offs.