Picking good first estimates for Goldschmidt division

Question

I\'m calculating fixedpoint reciprocals in Q22.10 with Goldschmidt division for use in my software rasterizer on ARM.

This is done by just setting the numerator to 1, i.

Answer 1

I could not resist spending an hour on your problem...

This algorithm is described in section 5.5.2 of "Arithmetique des ordinateurs" by Jean-Michel Muller (in french). It is actually a special case of Newton iterations with 1 as starting point. The book gives a simple formulation of the algorithm to compute N/D, with D normalized in range [1/2,1[:

e = 1 - D
Q = N
repeat K times:
  Q = Q * (1+e)
  e = e*e

The number of correct bits doubles at each iteration. In the case of 32 bits, 4 iterations will be enough. You can also iterate until e becomes too small to modify Q.

Normalization is used because it provides the max number of significant bits in the result. It is also easier to compute the error and number of iterations needed when the inputs are in a known range.

Once your input value is normalized, you don't need to bother with the value of BASE until you have the inverse. You simply have a 32-bit number X normalized in range 0x80000000 to 0xFFFFFFFF, and compute an approximation of Y=2^64/X (Y is at most 2^33).

This simplified algorithm may be implemented for your Q22.10 representation as follows:

// Fixed point inversion
// EB Apr 2010

#include 
#include 

// Number X is represented by integer I: X = I/2^BASE.
// We have (32-BASE) bits in integral part, and BASE bits in fractional part
#define BASE 22
typedef unsigned int uint32;
typedef unsigned long long int uint64;

// Convert FP to/from double (debug)
double toDouble(uint32 fp) { return fp/(double)(1<>(uint64)32;
      e = (e*e)>>(uint64)32;
      printf("Q=0x%llx E=0x%llx\n",q,e);
    }
  // Here, (Q/2^32) is the inverse of (NFP/2^32).
  // We have 2^31<=NFP<2^32 and 2^32>(64-2*BASE-shl));
}

int main()
{
  double x = 1.234567;
  uint32 xx = toFP(x);
  uint32 yy = inverse(xx);
  double y = toDouble(yy);

  printf("X=%f Y=%f X*Y=%f\n",x,y,x*y);
  printf("XX=0x%08x YY=0x%08x XX*YY=0x%016llx\n",xx,yy,(uint64)xx*(uint64)yy);
}

As noted in the code, the multiplications are not full 32x32->64 bits. E will become smaller and smaller and fits initially on 32 bits. Q will always be on 34 bits. We take only the high 32 bits of the products.

The derivation of 64-2*BASE-shl is left as an exercise for the reader :-). If it becomes 0 or negative, the result is not representable (the input value is too small).

EDIT. As a follow-up to my comment, here is a second version with an implicit 32-th bit on Q. Both E and Q are now stored on 32 bits:

uint32 inverse2(uint32 fp)
{
  if (fp == 0) return (uint32)-1; // invalid

  // Shift FP to have the most significant bit set
  int shl = 0; // normalization shift for FP
  uint32 nfp = fp; // normalized FP
  while ( (nfp & 0x80000000) == 0 ) { nfp <<= 1; shl++; } // use "clz" instead
  int shr = 64-2*BASE-shl; // normalization shift for Q
  if (shr <= 0) return (uint32)-1; // overflow

  uint64 e = 1 + (0xFFFFFFFF ^ nfp); // 2^32-NFP, max value is 2^31
  uint64 q = e; // 2^32 implicit bit, and implicit first iteration
  int i;
  for (i=0;i<3;i++) // iterate
    {
      e = (e*e)>>(uint64)32;
      q += e + ((q*e)>>(uint64)32);
    }
  return (uint32)(q>>shr) + (1<<(32-shr)); // insert implicit bit
}