Question

Set z to x - y without using - or multi-bit constants.

Provided input(s): x and y
Permitted: 10 operations (may use !, ~, +, <<, >>, &, ^, |) and up to 1-bit constants

Answer 1

The student's question requires setting z to x - y by using bit manipulation and logical operations involving bitwise NOT and addition. To perform this operation without subtraction or multi-bit constants, one can calculate the two's complement of y and then add x to it.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking how to calculate the difference between two variables, x and y, without using the subtraction operator or multi-bit constants. This question involves bit manipulation and logical operations that are commonly discussed in computer science and computer engineering courses.

To set z to the result of x - y without using the subtraction operator or multi-bit constants, we can use the following series of operations:

1. Calculate the two's complement of y through the operation ~y + 1
2. Add x to the result of step 1 to obtain z

This makes use of bitwise NOT (~), addition (+), and 1-bit constants (0 and 1) to achieve the desired result.