Before going into the details of the algorithms, some terminology:
The divisor is the number being divided; for example, in 5/7 the divisor is 5.
The dividend is the number of divisions; for example, in 5/7 the dividend is 7.
Logic shift left rolls a 0-valued bit into the right [least-significant] bit of a register, and rolls the left [most-significant] bit into a carry flag [rolling all the intermediate bits too, of course].
Shift left rolls the carry flag into the right bit, and then rolls the left bit into the carry flag [also rolling all the intermediate bits].
Rotate left rolls the left bit into the right bit and into the carry flag [rolling all the intermediate bits].
For the sake of these code snippets, the value of the divisor is represented by x, and is considered to be an m-bit value, and the value of the dividend is represented by y, and is considered to be an n-bit value. [Typically, m = n, however, algorithms are more useful the more generic they are, so I choose not to restrict my writeup to that particular special case.]

One special case that always needs to be kept in mind when doing any kind of division is division by 0. The details for handling that case are left for another writeup. Most of this writeup concerns dividing two unsigned values, the rules for using signed values are explained near the end.

One method of dividing is by multiplying by a reciprocal. [When using the method described below, another special case is dividing by 1 - this method will not work when y is 1, so for completeness a test for (y = 1) and special handling of that trivial case will have to be added to the algorithm described below.] To divide x [stored in an m-bit wide register A] by y (y being greater than 1), let L be a p-bit register [p ≥ (m + n)] containing the value (2p / y) [rounded down]. Multiply A by L, using an m-bit by p-bit multiply routine, add L to the result, then drop the least significant p bits. [Mathematically, multiplying by L then adding L is the same as incrementing the value of x before multiplying, but if the value of x were (2m - 1) then an increment would push the value beyond the representable limits of register A. Therefore, the safest implementation is to multiply then add.] The result turns out to be floor(((X + 1) * floor(2p / y)) / 2p), or simply ((x + 1) / y) with a rounding error introduced by the 'floor' functions that, in the end, gives the value floor(x / y). As long as p is not less than (m + n), the final rounding error is always less than 1 and so it never affects the result. This method has an advantage in that some processors have a very fast, hardware-implemented w-bit by w-bit multiply routines [where w is the size of the data word for that particular processor], so if (m + n) ≤ w then this can be used by extending the register A to w bits and by using p = w. This normally works very well, as the result of the multiplication is usually stored in two halves so dropping w LSBs from the result usually means just ignoring the lower half of the result. It has the disadvantage that L must be calculated, by dividing 2p by y - so some division has to be done sometime, anyway. This method is most suitable where y can be fixed at compile-time, so L is a constant which can be hard-coded as a literal, or where many registers must be divided by the same value [compute L once using a slower division routine, then perform all the necessary divisions using the faster multiply routine].

To more traditional division routines: to divide x, stored in m-bit register A, by y, putting the integer result in A and the remainder in an n-bit [or wider] register C, using an integer counter I for counting between 0 and m:
C := 0
I := m
while (I > 0)
  Logic shift left A
  Shift left C
  if ((carry flag ≠ 0) || (Cy)) then
    C := (C - y)
    A := (A | 0x01)
  end if
  I := (I - 1)
end while
At the beginning of the loop, the rightmost I bits of A contain floor((x / y) * (2 ^ (I - m))). [This value is guaranteed to be at most I bits wide because x fits in m bits and so is less than (2 ^ m) and y ≥ 1, so ((x / y) * (2 ^ (-m))) is less than 1.] The leftmost (m - I) bits contain the value (x mod (2 ^ (m - I))).

The practice of using one register to hold two values, one value in the leftmost bits and one value in the rightmost bits, is used in other algorithms such as multiplication algorithms. In trying to understand such algorithms, it helps to remember that one register or variable does not always correspond to one value. This makes the algorithms less intuitive, but it does make them more efficient in terms of data memory (and even speed).

To store the integer result of the division in a different m-bit register, D, and preserve the value of A:
C := 0
I := m
while (I > 0)
  Logic shift left D
  Rotate left A
  Shift left C
  if ((carry flag ≠ 0) || (Cy)) then
    C := (C - y)
    D := (D | 0x01)
  endif
  I := (I - 1)
end while
If the contents of A need not be kept, the 'Rotate left A' can be replaced with a 'Logic shift left A' [in which case A will contain 0 on exit] or a 'Shift left A' [in which case A will contain the previous contents of D on exit].

Fixed-point division is useful in certain areas, for example sometimes one wishes to divide and round to the closest integer rather than round down. To do this, use a fixed-point division with one more bit of precision than integer division, shift the result right one place, then increment if there is a carry. Every value with a fractional value of a half or greater will be rounded up, all other values will be rounded down. To perform fixed-point division, where the programmer wishes a result of o bits, and o > m, putting the result in D [now o bits wide], the following algorithm will do:
C := 0
I := o
while (I > 0)
  Logic shift left D
  Logic shift left A
  Shift left C
  if ((carry flag ≠ 0) || (Cy)) then
    C := (C - y)
    D := (D | 0x01)
  end if
  I := (I - 1)
end while
A will be cleared.

To preserve A, one may use an extra register [E, (o - m) bits wide]:
E := 0
C := 0
I := o
while (I > 0)
  Logic shift left D
  Rotate left A:E
  Shift left C
  if ((carry flag ≠ 0) || (Cy)) then
    C := (C - y)
    D := (D | 0x01)
  end if
  I := (I - 1)
end while
'Rotate left A:E' can be accomplished by:
Logic shift left E
Shift left A
if (carry flag ≠ 0) then
  E := (E | 0x01)
end if
E will be clear at the end of this routine.

Fixed-point divide with o < m is uncommon in my experience, however, for completeness, here's an algorithm for that [using a register E, which is o bits wide]:
E := [most significant o bits of x]
C := 0
I := o
while (I > 0)
  Logic shift left E
  Rotate left C
  Shift left C
  if ((carry flag ≠ 0) || (Cy)) then
    C := (C - y)
    D := (D | 0x01)
  endif
  I := (I - 1)
end while
E is clear on exit. [If A need not be preserved, the register E can be done away with and 'Logic shift left E' could be replaced with 'Rotate left A', 'Logic shift left A', or 'Shift left A'.]

Getting back to the method of multiplying by a reciprocal, the following algorithm will divide 2p by y, putting the result in p-bits wide register D, provided y is not 1:
C := 1
I := p
while (I > 0)
  Logic shift left D
  Logic shift left C
  if ((carry flag ≠ 0) || (Cy)) then
    C := (C - y)
    D := (D | 0x01)
  end if
  I := (I - 1)
end while

To divide signed values, first determine the sign of the result (if the signs of the divisor and dividend are the same, the sign of the result will be +; if the signs are different, the sign of the result will be -). Next, convert (as necessary) divisor and dividend to nonnegative values. Perform unsigned division, then apply the sign of the result as determined in the first step. Care should be taken if rounding to the nearest integer in signed division - for example, 7.5 normally rounds to 8, but -7.5 normally rounds to -7. If rounding -7.5 to -8 is acceptable, then no worries; otherwise, the appropriate value should be taken as shown in the table below. R represents the result from the unsigned divide, C is the result of the C register after the division:

             \   result is +ve   result is -ve
              \                               
((2 * C) < y)          R              -R      
((2 * C) = y)       (R + 1)           -R      
((2 * C) > y)       (R + 1)        -(R + 1)   

Finally, it is worth noting that none of the above examples of division are reentrant. In general, it's very difficult to make a division routine reentrant, the simplest way would probably be to have local shadow registers for every instance of the rountine, copy the values of the dividend and divisor at the beginning of the routine in a short critical section (i.e. a section with interrupts disabled), work on the shadow registers, then copy the result back to the main processing context in a critical section at the end of the routine.

In mathematical terms, the division algorithm is defined in the following way:

Let a be an integer and b be a natural number. Then there exist unique integers q and r such that a=b*q+r and 0<r<b.

In less formal terms, q is the quotient and r is the remainder. Some examples:

  • a=42, b=8; q=5, r=2.
  • a=-87, b=20; q=-5, r=13.
  • a=404, b=1300; q=0, r=404.
  • a=-1, b=10; q=-1, r=9.

The division algorithm is the formal statement of the method of long division, with the allowance made for negativeprimenumbers.


Proof (existence and uniqueness):

Let a be an integer and b be a natural number. Let q be the greatest integer less than or equal to a/b. Then b*q<a. Let r=a-b*q. Then r is positive or zero, and a=b*q+r. Notice that a<b*q+b = b*(q+1), because q was chosen to be the greatest integer less than or equal to a/b. So b*q+r < b*q+b, and r<b. QED (existence)

Let a be an integer and b be a natural number. Let q1 and r1 be integers such that a=b*q1+r1 and 0<r1<b. Further, let q2 and r2 be integers such that a=b*q2+r2 and 0<r2<b. Then b*(q1-q2) = r2-r1, and b divides r2-r1. But, both r1 and r2 are between 0 and b, so -b < r2-r1 < b. These conditions can only be satisfied when r1=r2. This implies that q1=q2. QED (uniqueness)

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.