Re: [PATCH 1/1] GCD: add binary GCD algorithm

From: zhaoxiu.zeng
Date: Fri Aug 15 2014 - 12:41:25 EST


å 2014/8/15 21:58, Peter Zijlstra åé:
> On Fri, Aug 15, 2014 at 08:49:16PM +0800, Zhaoxiu Zeng wrote:
>> Because some architectures (alpha, armv6, etc.) don't provide hardware division,
>> the mod operation is slow! Binary GCD algorithm uses simple arithmetic operations,
>> it replaces division with arithmetic shifts, comparisons, and subtraction.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Zhaoxiu Zeng <zhaoxiu.zeng@xxxxxxxxx>
>> ---
>> lib/Kconfig | 15 +++++++++++++++
>> lib/gcd.c | 31 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>> 2 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/lib/Kconfig b/lib/Kconfig
>> index a5ce0c7..80e8e54 100644
>> --- a/lib/Kconfig
>> +++ b/lib/Kconfig
>> @@ -177,6 +177,21 @@ config CRC8
>> when they need to do cyclic redundancy check according CRC8
>> algorithm. Module will be called crc8.
>>
>> +#
>> +# GCD
>> +#
>> +choice
>> + prompt "GCD implementation"
>> + default GCD_ALGO_EUCLIDEAN
>> +
>> +config GCD_ALGO_EUCLIDEAN
>> + bool "Euclidean algorithm"
>> +
>> +config GCD_ALGO_BINARY
>> + bool "Binary GCD algorithm (Stein's algorithm)"
>> +
>> +endchoice
>
> Does this result in the user being asked which GCD algo he wants? If so,
> I think that's bad.
>

For the architecture which doesn't provide hardware division, "GCD_ALGO_BINARY"
can be selected in arch/???/Kconfig.

>
>> +#else
>> + r = a | b;
>> +
>> + if (!a || !b)
>> + return r;
>> +
>> + r = r ^ (r - 1);
>> + if (!(a & r))
>> + goto even_odd; /* a/c even, b/c odd */
>> + if (!(b & r))
>> + goto odd_even; /* a/c odd, b/c even */
>> +
>> + /* a/c and b/c both odd */
>> + while (a != b) {
>> + if (a > b) {
>> + a -= b;
>> +even_odd:
>> + do
>> + a >>= 1;
>> + while (!(a & r));
>> + } else {
>> + b -= a;
>> +odd_even:
>> + do
>> + b >>= 1;
>> + while (!(b & r));
>> + }
>> + }
>> +#endif
>> return b;
>> }
>
> So I looked at wikipedia (I wasn't aware of this algorithm, clever
> though), and am still somewhat puzzled by your 'r'.
>
> What's 'wrong' with their iterative version, or what's better about your
> 'r' stuff?
>

If use "r = (r & -r)" to replace "r = r ^ (r - 1)", the function works fine too.
"r = (r & -r)" get the lsb of (a | b), it's the largest power of 2 that divides
a and b. Using r not 1, can avoid pre-shift right and post-shift left.

The result of "r = r ^ (r - 1)" equal to "lsb | (lsb - 1)".
Using "r = r ^ (r - 1)" because it requires fewer instructions than "r = (r & -r)"
on some architectures.

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