Patent ID: 9600240
Date: 2017-03-21
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A zero counter comprising a plurality of hardware logic blocks each arranged to calculate one bit of an output value, the output value corresponding to a number of trailing or leading zeros in an input string, wherein a first of the plurality of hardware logic block is arranged to calculate a least significant bit of the output value and comprises: a low section hardware logic block comprising inputs arranged to receive bits from a first section of the input string including a least significant bit in the input string and one or more logic gates arranged to combine the received bits and generate at least one output; a high section hardware logic block comprising inputs arranged to receive bits from a second section of the input string including a most significant bit in the input string and one or more logic gates arranged to combine the received bits and generate at least one output, wherein the first and second sections of the input string are non-overlapping and comprise all the bits in the input string; and combining logic arranged to combine the outputs of the two section hardware logic blocks and generate the least significant bit of the output value, wherein each other hardware logic block in the plurality of hardware logic blocks is arranged to calculate a bit of index i of the output value.