Patent ID: 6853699

Claim:
A shifter circuit capable of shifting a plurality of input data bits to the left or right by a number of bit positions as a function of a binary value of a plurality of shift control bits, comprising: a first shifter element configured to perform one of only two possible shifting operations on the input data bits to produce a plurality of first output bits, a first one of the shift control bits being used to select the shifting operation performed by the first shifter element; a second shifter element configured to perform at least one shifting operation on the first output bits to produce a plurality of second output bits, each of said at least one shifting operation being selectable from only two possible shifting operations, a different one of the shift control bits being used to select each of said at least one shifting operation performed by the second shifting element; and a third shifter element configured to perform one of only two possible shifting operations on the second output bits, a second one of the shift control bits being used to select the shifting operation performed by the third shifter element.