Datasheet
PIC18F1230/1330
2009 Microchip Technology Inc. DS39758D-page 85
9.0 8 x 8 HARDWARE MULTIPLIER
9.1 Introduction
All PIC18 devices include an 8 x 8 hardware multiplier
as part of the ALU. The multiplier performs an unsigned
operation and yields a 16-bit result that is stored in the
Product register pair, PRODH:PRODL. The multiplier’s
operation does not affect any flags in the STATUS
register.
Making multiplication a hardware operation allows it to
be completed in a single instruction cycle. This has the
advantages of higher computational throughput and
reduced code size for multiplication algorithms and
allows the PIC18 devices to be used in many
applications previously reserved for digital signal
processors. A comparison of various hardware and
software multiply operations, along with the savings in
memory and execution time, is shown in Table 9-1.
9.2 Operation
Example 9-1 shows the instruction sequence for an 8 x 8
unsigned multiplication. Only one instruction is required
when one of the arguments is already loaded in the
WREG register.
Example 9-2 shows the sequence to do an 8 x 8 signed
multiplication. To account for the sign bits of the
arguments, each argument’s Most Significant bit (MSb)
is tested and the appropriate subtractions are done.
EXAMPLE 9-1: 8 x 8 UNSIGNED
MULTIPLY ROUTINE
EXAMPLE 9-2: 8 x 8 SIGNED MULTIPLY
ROUTINE
TABLE 9-1: PERFORMANCE COMPARISON FOR VARIOUS MULTIPLY OPERATIONS
MOVF ARG1, W ;
MULWF ARG2 ; ARG1 * ARG2 ->
; PRODH:PRODL
MOVF ARG1, W
MULWF ARG2 ; ARG1 * ARG2 ->
; PRODH:PRODL
BTFSC ARG2, SB ; Test Sign Bit
SUBWF PRODH, F ; PRODH = PRODH
; - ARG1
MOVF ARG2, W
BTFSC ARG1, SB ; Test Sign Bit
SUBWF PRODH, F ; PRODH = PRODH
; - ARG2
Routine Multiply Method
Program
Memory
(Words)
Cycles
(Max)
Time
@ 40 MHz @ 10 MHz @ 4 MHz
8 x 8 unsigned
Without hardware multiply 13 69 6.9 s27.6 s69 s
Hardware multiply 1 1 100 ns 400 ns 1 s
8 x 8 signed
Without hardware multiply 33 91 9.1 s36.4 s91 s
Hardware multiply 6 6 600 ns 2.4 s6 s
16 x 16 unsigned
Without hardware multiply 21 242 24.2 s96.8 s242 s
Hardware multiply 28 28 2.8 s 11.2 s28 s
16 x 16 signed
Without hardware multiply 52 254 25.4 s 102.6 s254 s
Hardware multiply 35 40 4.0 s16.0 s40 s