Basic computer arithmetic

Abstract

This chapter consists of a brief review or introduction, depending on the reader’s background, of the basics of computer arithmetic. The first two sections are on algorithms and designs of hardware units for addition and multiplication. (Subtraction is another fundamental operation, but it is almost always realized as the addition of the negation of the subtrahend.) For each of the two operations, a few architectures for hardware implementation are sketched that are sufficiently exemplary of the variety of possibilities. The third section of the chapter is on division, an operation that in its direct form is (in this book) not as significant as addition and multiplication but which may nevertheless be useful in certain cases. The discussions on algorithms and architectures for division are therefore limited.