Question

When performing multiplication, the 2 operands could be swapped and the result would still be the same. For example, 4 x 7 is the same as 7 x 4. But in hardware, one of them is significantly faster than the one. Could you think of some checks the hardware needs to put in place before performing the multiplication? Please write one of these checks in pseudo code

Answer 1

One check that the hardware needs to put in place before performing multiplication is to ensure that the operands have the correct sign. Here is an example of the check in pseudo code: if (operand1 < 0 && operand2 > 0)...

Step-by-step explanation:

One check that the hardware needs to put in place before performing multiplication is to ensure that the operands have the correct sign. The sign of the product depends on the signs of the operands, as stated in the reference information provided. So, the hardware should check the signs of the operands and apply the appropriate rules for multiplication.

Here is an example of the check in pseudo code:

if (operand1 < 0 && operand2 > 0) {
result = -1 * operand1 * operand2;
} else if (operand1 > 0 && operand2 < 0) {
result = -1 * operand1 * operand2;
} else {
result = operand1 * operand2;
}