Parallel Decimal Multipliers and Squarers Using Karatsuba-Ofman´s Algorithm

Financial and commercial applications depend on decimal arithmetic since the results must match exactly those obtained by human calculations. Multiplication and squaring are frequently used operations in these applications. In this paper we propose to improve the efficiency of state-of-the-art decimal multipliers using the Karatsuba-Ofman´s algorithm. The method is also used to implement the squaring operation. The results indicate that the proposed parallel decimal multipliers based on the Karatsuba-Ofman´s algorithm are very efficient with area reductions up to 30%. Also, the proposed decimal squarers achieve improvements in the area of almost 40% compared to a multiplier for the same number of digits, stressing the importance of dedicated implementations of these units.