Implementing a square root operation in a computer system

摘要

A method and computer system are provided for implementing a square root operation using an iterative converging approximation technique. The method includes fewer computations than conventional methods, and only includes computations which are simple to implement in hardware on a computer system, such as multiplication, addition, subtraction and shifting. Therefore, the methods described herein are adapted specifically for being performed on a computer system, e.g. in hardware, and allow the computer system to perform a square root operation with low latency and with low power consumption.

主权项

1. A method of implementing a square root operation in a computer system to determine a value of √{square root over (b)}, where b is an input value, comprising:
obtaining an initial approximation of1b  denoted as p0; and for iterations in which an iteration index i=0, . . . , c, c being a predetermined number greater than or equal to 0:
(i) performing a first computation using multiplier logic of the computer system to determine a first intermediate parameter ri based on a multiplication of the input value b with pi;(ii) performing a second computation using the multiplier logic to determine a second intermediate parameter si based on a multiplication of the first intermediate parameter ri with pi;(iii) when i (iv) when i=c, computing with the multiplier logic the value of √{square root over (b)} based on a multiplication of first intermediate parameter rc with second intermediate parameter sc.