The Residue Number System

A novel number system called the residue number system is developed from the linear congruence viewpoint. The residue number system is of particular interest because the arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction and multiplication may be executed in the same period of time without the need for carry. The main difficulties of the residue code pertain to the determination of the relative magnitude of two residue representations, and to the division process. A discussion of the arithmetic operations and the conversion process required to convert from a residue code to a weighted code is given. It is concluded that in its present state the residue code is probably not suitable for general purpose computation but is suitable for a special class of control problems. Further research in both components and arithmetic is required if a residue code suitable for general purpose computation is to be obtained.