Recently,I have been trying to understand how the Binary Extended Euclidean Algorithm works at the processor level. This question is all about finding an Inverse element in GF(2^m) with polynomial basis.
Generally I came across the Extended Euclidean Algorithm for evaluating an inverse element but the fact is that it involves too many addition and multiplication operations. The Binary EEA algorithm requires just bit shifting operations (equivalent to division by 2--logical shift right). The algorithm is in this link, page number 8.
In step 3 and 5 of this algorithm, every iteration shifts the parameters u and b by 1 bit to the right adding zero to the MSB at the same time. The loop ends when u == 1 and returns b. My question is how many primitive operations does a processor (say a 32 bit processor for example) perform in step 3 or step 5 of every iteration?
I came across barrel shifter and I am quite confused about how fast the shifting takes place. Should I really consider these primitive operations or should I ignore them if because the shifting may be faster?
It would really help me a lot if someone would show the primitive operations for the case where the size of u is 194 bits.
In case you might be wondering about the denominator x in step 3 and 5 of the algorithm, its the polynomial representation and x means nothing but 10 in binary and parameter u is an N-bit binary number.
There is no generic answer to this question: you can use portable code that will be tedious to optimize or highly machine specific code that will be even more complicated to optimize without breaking.
If you want real performance, you have to use MMX/AVX registers on the maximum width you can get your hands on. Intel provides lightweight wrappers on low-level instructions as macros and inline functions.
Always use unsigned types for your shifting operations to avoid unnecessary steps.