This article will explore the classic division algorithms and how they can be implemented efficiently, in terms of code space and execution time, by exploiting machine features. Don’t expect anything astounding here, the algorithms are classic for a reason: this path is well-trodden.

This is the first in a series of articles that attempt to dispel the mystique around division algorithms. We do this by presenting coded algorithms that correctly divide, and describe how variations of these algorithms are used in emRun and emFloat, our C runtime and floating-point libraries.