Patent attributes
Some embodiments provide a novel way of performing a signed multiplication. Each individual bit of a first operand is multiplied by every bit of a second operand to generate partial multiplication results. Each partial result is shiftably added to other partial results except one partial result which is shiftably subtracted. For the partial result that is subtracted, the most significant bit of the second operand is negated and is utilized as carry in of the subtraction operation. The most significant bit of each operand is considered to have a negative sign when generating the partial multiplication results. Also, one of the partial results is appended with the most significant bit of the second operand. Some embodiments utilize a configurable IC that performs subtraction with the same circuitry and at the same cost as addition. The configurable IC also utilizes hybrid interconnect/logic circuits to perform part of the multiplication operation.
