Embedded Programming Tips and Tricks
Fast Division
On microcontrollers without a divide instruction very fast division can be done by bit shifting a variable right.
Each shift does a divide by two.
For example
Y = Y >> 1; (Will result in a divide by 2)
or
X = X >> 4; (Will result in a divide by 16)
By adding a multiplication you can achieve other, more complex, divisions.
For example
Z = Z * 3;
Z = Z >> 4; (div 16)
Will result in a division of 5.33 (16/3 = 5.33)
Be sure to do the multiply first, otherwise bits will be lost.
Also be sure the variable size is large enough to store the multiplied value.