Integer scaling is very common in embedded systems. For example to make human-readable values of ADC readings (correcting for gain or voltage dividers). Two operations are needed to do scaling without using floating-point numbers – multiplication and division. Cortex-M0 is a nice little beast with a single cycle integer multiplier. ARM provides a smaller area 32-cycle multiplier but I have not yet come across a chip that would have it. All chip makers seem to choose the faster option. Cortex-M0 however totally lacks integer division. Division is handled by library functions. A simple code like y = x * 123 / 120; gets compiled to a function call. Software division of course takes time (and energy). There is a nice hack though 🙂
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