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October 2004
Abstract
In this article, we present new results on the problem of converting a number x from
binary to the double-base number system (DBNS), i.e. as a sum of mixed powers of 2 and
3. A greedy algorithm was previously proposed which requires lookup tables in order to
find the largest number of the form 2a 3b less than or equal to x. We address this problem
by using results from the theory of continued fractions and diophantine approximation. An
approximation to the greedy algorithm is proposed for the conversion problem, and experi-
mental results demonstrate its efficiency. Although the material presented in this article is
mainly theoretical, the proposed algorithms could lead to very efficient implementations for
cryptographic or digital signal processing applications.
1
1 Introduction
The Double-Base number system (DBNS), introduced by V. Dimitrov and G. A. Jullien [1]
has advantages in many applications, such as cryptography [2] and digital signal processing [3].
Recently, in his Ph.D. dissertation [4], R. Muscedere proposed several hardware-based solutions
for the difficult operations in the Multi-Dimensional Logarithmic Number System (MDLNS),
which can be seen as a generalization of the DBNS. He addresses the problems of addition,
subtraction, and conversion from binary. Efficient methods have been proposed – using lookup-
tables with special range addressing schemes – for digital signal processing applications, where
the dynamic range of the numbers do not usually exceed 16-to-32 bits. However, such table-based
solutions become unrealistic to implement as the numbers grow in size, as with cryptographic
applications for example, and the techniques also seem to be quite difficult to generalize.
The main objective of this paper is to find a theoretical approaches to the problem of con-
verting a number from binary to DBNS. We tackle the problem using continued fractions,
In the second part of the paper, we propose an approximated algorithm for the conversion
from binary to DBNS which has many advantages over the classical approach.
x= 2ai 3bi , (1)
i
nition of s-integers [5] – an integer is called s-integer if all of its prime divisors are among the
first s primes – we shall refer to numbers of the form 2a 3b as 2-integers in the rest of the paper.
This representation is clearly highly redundant. For every integer x, the representations with
the minimum number of digits, i.e., the minimum number of 2-integers (less than, or equal to x)
are called the canonic double-base number representations. For example, 127 has 783 different
127 = 22 33 + 21 32 + 20 30 = 22 33 + 24 30 + 20 31 = 25 31 + 20 33 + 22 30 .
In the rest of the paper we shall refer to the size of a DBNS representation, by the number of
digits, i.e., the number of terms in (1), that are required to represent a given integer.
2
An elegant way to vizualise DBNS numbers is to use a two-dimensional array, with, for
example, columns representing powers of 2 and rows representing powers of 3. Each term in (1)
is represented by a colored cell. The three canonic representations of 127 are given in Figure 1.
1 2 4 8 1 2 4 8 16 1 2 4 8 16 32
1 1 1
3 3 3
9 9 9
27 27 27
The problem of finding the canonic DBNS representation of a given integer is a difficult
problem. In [6], V. Dimitrov and G. A. Jullien proposed a greedy algorithm which provides the
so-called near-canonic double-base number representation (NCDBNR). In this article, and for
reasons we shall explain further, we use the terms full-greedy, or F-greedy, to refer to Algorithm 1
presented bellow. It has been proved that F-greedy terminates in O logloglogx x iterations.
Algorithm 1 F-greedy
Input : A positive integer x
1: R←∅
2: while x > 0 do
4: R ← R ∪ {a, b}
5: x← x−s
6: end while
In this paper we investigate the problem of finding the largest 2-integer less than or equal
to x, required at each iteration of F-greedy. For small size numbers, the use of lookup tables
seems to be the best approach. However, for larger integers, it becomes unrealistic and other
solutions are required. Although it is not a difficult computational problem, we shall see that
Let us define the problem more precisely. We try to find two non-negative integers a, b such
that 2a 3b ≤ x, and among the solutions to this problem, 2a 3b is the largest possible value, or
3
equivalently
2a 3b = max 2c 3d , such that (c, d) ∈ N2 , and 2c 3d ≤ x . (2)
and such that no other integers c, d ≥ 0 give a better left approximation to log x.
Let us define α = log3 2 and β = {log3 x} = log3 x − log3 x (β is the fractional part of
log3 x). Then we try to find the best left approximation to log3 x with non-negative integers. If
log3 x. The solutions are the points with integer coordinates, located in the area defined by
the line ∆ and the axes. The best solution corresponds to the point with the smallest vertical
To solve the problem of finding the largest 2-integer ≤ x, we use results from the theory of
1
α = a0 + ,
1
a1 +
1
a2 +
a3 + · · ·
where a0 = α and a1 , a2 , . . . are integers ≥ 1. The ai s are called the partial quotients. A
continued fraction is represented by the sequence (an )n∈N which can either be finite or infinite.
1
We can equivalently consider the horizontal distance
4
Every irrational real number α can be expressed uniquely as an infinite simple continued
rational number can be expressed uniquely as a finite simple continued fraction. For example,
the infinite continued fraction expansions of the irrationals π, e and log3 2 (that we shall use in
e = [2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 6, 1, 1, 8, . . . ],
The quantity obtained by restricting the continued fraction to its first n + 1 partial quotients
pn
= [a0 , a1 , a2 , . . . , an ]
qn
is called the nth convergent of α. The numbers pn and qn satisfy the recurrence
which make them easily computable starting with p−1 = 1, q−1 = 0, p0 = 0, q0 = 1. They satisfy
approximations of an irrational number. For example, the first convergents of π are listed in
Table 1.
5
Ostrowski’s number system [7] is associated with the series (qn )n∈N of the denominators of
the convergents of the continued fraction expansion of an irrational number 0 < α < 1. The
where
0 ≤ d1 ≤ a1 − 1, and 0 ≤ dk ≤ ak for k > 1,
dk = 0 if dk+1 = ak+1 .
√
1+ 5
For example, if α = 2 = [1, 1, 1, 1, . . . ] is the golden section, (qn )n∈N is the series of
Fibonacci numbers, and the condition dk = 0 if dk+1 = ak+1 corresponds to the fact that we do
not have two consecutive ones in the corresponding Zeckendorf representation [8].
Ostrowski’s representation of integers can be extended to real numbers [9]. The base is given
by the sequence (θn )n∈N , where θn = (qn α − pn ). Note that the sign of θ n is equal to (−1)n .
Proposition 2 Every real number β such that −α ≤ β < 1 − α can be written uniquely on the
form
+∞
β= bk θk−1 , (7)
k=1
where
0 ≤ b1 ≤ a1 − 1, and 0 ≤ bk ≤ ak for k > 1,
bk = 0 if bk+1 = ak+1 ,
bk =
ak for infinitely many even and odd integers.
Prop. 2 can be used to approximate β modulo 1 (by only considering the fractional parts)
by numbers of the form N α. If we represent β using (7), the integers N which provide the best
Equation (8) provides a series of best approximations to β on both sides; i.e., the numbers
Nn α can either be greater or smaller than β (modulo 1). If we are only interested in the best
left approximations to β, we must consider the base (|θn |)n∈N . The following proposition holds.
6
Proposition 3 Every real number β such that 0 ≤ β < 1, can be written uniquely on the form
+∞
β= ck |θk−1 |, (9)
k=1
where
0 ≤ ck ≤ ak for k > 1,
ck+1 = 0 if ck = ak ,
ck = ak for infinitely many even integers.
In this case, the sequence of best left approximations is more difficult to define due to the
alternating signs of (θn )n∈N . In the next section, we present an algorithm, inspired by [10],
tions of β
Let 0 < α < 1 such that α = [0, a1 , a2 , . . . ] (α is irrational), and 0 < β ≤ 1 be given. Inhomoge-
neous left approximations of β are numbers of the form kα + l less than or equal to β, with k, l
integers. It is clear that there are infinitely many such approximations. Here, we want to define
two increasing sequences of integers (kn )n∈N and (ln )n∈N , such that for all n ∈ N
and, furthermore, for all n, for all k < kn+1 , k = kn , and for all l ∈ Z such that 0 ≤ kα − l ≤ β,
then
The sequence (fn + fn+1 )n∈N is decreasing, and since 0 < β ≤ 1, there exists a unique non-
Before we give the algorithm that defines the series of best left inhomogeneous approximations
7
Lemma 1 Let 0 < β ≤ 1 and (fn )n∈N be defined as above. Then, there exists a unique non-
negative integer n, a unique non-negative integer c, and a unique real number e such that
Proof: If n ≥ 1, then with fn + fn+1 < β ≤ fn + fn−1 , and (10), we have fn < β − fn+1 ≤
Lemma 2 Let α be an irrational number such that 0 < α < 1 and α = [0, a1 , a2 , . . . ]. Also
define (pn )n∈N , (qn )n∈N , the sequences of the numerators and denominators of the convergents
of α. Let 0 < β ≤ 1 and (fn )n∈N be defined as above. n, c, e are the unique values satisfying (12).
where c is the unique integer greater than 1 given by (12). Then we have 0 < β − (kα − l) < β.
Proof: Assume first that n is even. We have β − (kα − l) = β − fn , and thus 0 < β − (kα − l) < β.
Algorithm 2 computes the two sequences of non-negative integers (kn )n∈N , and (ln )n∈N such
This algorithm is inspired by [11]. For similar algorithms, see [12, 13, 14]. Note that
may have ni+1 = ni . This happens if and only if ni is even and ci > 1 ; this would then happen
Let us prove that Algorithm 2 does actually provide the best left approximations to β.
Proposition 4 Let 0 < α < 1 irrational such that α = [0, a1 , a2 , . . . ], and 0 < β ≤ 1 be
given. Let (pn /qn )n∈N be the sequence of the convergents of α. Then, the increasing sequences
of integers (ki )i∈N and (li )i∈N given by the previous algorithm satisfy, for all i ∈ N,
8
Algorithm 2 Computes the sequence (kn α − ln )n∈N of inhomogeneous best left approximations
to β.
With (fn )n∈N defined as above, we start with k0 = 0, l0 = 0, and we inductively define, ni , ci ,
ei , ki , and li as follows: If
and furthermore, for all i, for all ki < k < ki+1 , and for all l ∈ Z, such that 0 ≤ kα − l ≤ β,
then
Proof: From Lemma 2, we have for all i, 0 < ki α − li < β. We first prove (13) by considering the
cases ni even and ni odd separately. If ni is even, then β > ki+1 α−li+1 = (ki α−li )+qni α−pni =
(ki α − li ) + fni > (ki α − li ) > 0. We prove the case ni odd in a similar way. If ni is odd, then
β > ki+1 α − li+1 = (ki α − li ) − ci (qni α − pni ) + qni +1 α − pni +1 = (ki α − li ) + ci fni + fni +1 >
ki α − li > 0.
Let us now consider ki < k < ki+1 , and l ∈ Z such that 0 ≤ kα − l ≤ β, and let us try to
ki+1 α + li+1 ) + (ki+1 α − li+1 − kα + l) ≤ β. What we prove in the next two cases that depend
Thus, what remains to be proved is that the last term (ki+1 α − li+1 − kα + l) is greater
than fni .
Since |ki+1 − k| < |ki+1 − ki | = qni , we have |(ki+1 α − li+1 − kα + l)| > fni . (See [15] for
a proof.)
9
To complete the proof, let us consider the sign of (ki+1 α − li+1 − kα + l). From (11) and
– If ki+1 − k = qni −1 , then |(ki+1 α − li+1 − kα + l)| > fni −1 , and since 0 ≤ kα − l ≤ β,
pni −1 ) = −fni −1 < 0. And we get β − (kα − l) < β − (ki α − li ) − fni − fni −1 < 0,
Here, what remains to be proved is that the last term (ki+1 α − li+1 − kα + l) is greater
Since |ki+1 − k| < |ki+1 − ki | = qni +1 − ci qni , we have |(ki+1 α − li+1 − kα + l)| > fni +1 +
ci fni . Moreover, we also know from (12) and Algo. 2, that |β − (ki α − li ) − ci fni − fni +1 | ≤
Thus, in both cases we have β − (kα − l) > β − (ki α − li ). This concludes the proof.
lem
As stated in the introduction, finding the largest 2-integer less than or equal to x is equivalent to
finding two non-negative integers a, b such that 2a 3b ≤ x and among the many possible solutions
Let a, b ∈ N be one of the solutions to the approximation problem, that is, such that 2a 3b ≤ x.
Clearly, we have
If α = log3 (2) (note that α is irrational and 0 < α < 1), and β = {log3 (x)}, is the fractional
part of log3 (x) such that β = log3 (x) − log3 (x), then the problem reduces to finding the two
a α + b ≤ β + log3 (x).
10
We note that a ≤ log2 (x) and b ≤ log3 (x).
pα − q ≤ β,
pα − q = max(r,s)∈N2 {rα − s ; 0 ≤ rα − s ≤ β, r ≤ log2 (x), s ≤ log3 (x)} .
From p, q, we easily get the non-negative exponents a, b by setting a = p and b = log3 (x) − q.
Proposition 5 Let x ∈ N be given. Let α = log3 (2), (0 < α < 1 and α ∈ Q), β = {log3 (x)}.
5 Example
Let x = 23832098195. We want to define a, b ≥ 0 such that 2a 3b is the largest 2-integer less than
or equal to x. Let α = log3 (2) = 0.6309. We have β = {log3 (x)} = 0.7495, log3 (x) = 21. We
set k0 = 0, l0 = 0. The partial quotients and the corresponding convergents in the continued
fraction expansion of α are given in Table 2. Table 3 gives the first best inhomogeneous left
i 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
ai 0 1 1 1 2 2 3
pi 0 1 1 2 5 12 41
qi 1 1 2 3 8 19 65
fi = |qi α − pi | 0.630930 0.369070 0.261860 0.107211 0.047438 0.012335 0.010434
Table 2: Partial quotients of the continued fraction expansion of α = log3 (2), and the corre-
ternary exponent (21 − 39 = −18). We thus retain the 3rd approxqimation which gives a = 17
and b = 21 − 10 = 11. In order to find the DBNS representation of x, we then apply the
11
i β − (ki α − li ) ni ci ei ki+1 li+1
0 0.7495 1 1 0.1186 1 0
1 0.1186 4 2 0.0114 9 5
2 0.0712 4 1 0.0114 17 10
3 0.0237 5 1 0.0009 63 39
same algorithm with the value x − 217 311 = 613086611. For completeness, we give the DBNS
The greedy algorithm is not optimal, in the sense that it does not necessarily produce a canonic
DBNS representation. However, within this algorithm, the step which consists in finding the
largest 2-integer less than equal to the input x, is optimal.2 It seems then natural to investigate
the potential advantages of an approximate greedy algorithm, where we only perform a few
iterations of Algorithm 2 to define a 2-integer, although not the largest, less than or equal to x.
d iterations of Algorithm 2 are performed at each step to define a ”good” 2-integer less than or
equal to x. In the following, we shall refer to d as the depth of search, or simply the depth. In
Algorithm 3 A-greedy
Input : Two positive integers x, d
1: R←∅
2: while x > 0 do
4: R ← R ∪ {a, b}
5: x← x−s
6: end while
2
We have proved in the previous sections that Algorithm 2 returns the best left approximation to β.
12
the example presented in section 5, the successive best left approximations to x = 23832098195
are 21 321 , 29 36 , 217 311 . Figure 2 shows the DBNS representations obtained for x when A-greedy
is applied at depth 1,2, and 3. As expected, we remark that the number of digits increases as
0 2
0
0 10
0
0 17
0
21 16 14
respectively. Note that depth 3 is equivalent to the full-greedy solution in this case
the depth decreases; we get 12 digits at depth 1, 8 digits at depth 2, and 7 digits at depth 3
(note that depth 3 is equivalent to the full-greedy solution in this case). Also, the largest binary
These results were to be expected. However, the following questions seems difficult to answeer
in the general case: By using the A-greedy algorithm at a given depth d, how many digits are
required to represent x compared to the solution provided by F-greedy? What decrease (resp.
increase) can we expect on the binary (resp. ternary) exponents? In order to answer these
questions, we have implemented the approximate greedy algorithm at different depths, for a
thousand randomly chosen numbers of sizes ranging from 64 to 512 bits. The results are shown
in Figures 3 to 6. Our experiments are summarized in Table 4. We first remark that for all
our tests (up to 512-bit integers), depth 5 is equivalent to the F-greedy algorithm. Which means
to a negative ternary exponent; i.e., the stop condition. By using the A-greedy algotithm, we
perform at most d iterations. It is possible that the stop condition occures before we reach the
desired depth, or would occur at the (d + 1)th iterations. Only in those two cases, we get the
13
full-greedy full-greedy
16 dist. to greedy at depth 2 16 dist. to greedy at depth 3
14 14
12 12
dist. to greedy / # of digits
8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2
0 0
-2 -2
-4 -4
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
# of experiments # of experiments
Figure 3: Number of digits obtained with the full-greedy (upper curves) and its difference with
the approximated versions at depth 2,3, and 4, for 1000 randomly chosen 64-bits numbers
26 full-greedy 26 full-greedy
dist. to greedy at depth 3 dist. to greedy at depth 4
24 24
22 22
20 20
18
18
dist. to greedy / # of digits
16
16
14
14
12
12
10
10
8
8
6
6
4
4 2
2 0
0 -2
-2 -4
-4 -6
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
# of experiments # of experiments
Figure 4: Number of digits obtained with the full-greedy (upper curves) and its difference with
the approximated versions at depth 2,3, and 4, for 1000 randomly chosen 128-bits numbers
Table 4: Average distance to the full-greedy solution at various depths. Note that depth 5 is
14
44 full-greedy 44 full-greedy
dist. to greedy at depth 3 dist. to greedy at depth 4
40 40
36 36
32 32
dist. to greedy / # of digits
24
24
20
20
16
16
12
12
8
8
4
4
0
0
-4
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
# of experiments # of experiments
Figure 5: Number of digits obtained with the full-greedy (upper curves) and its difference with
the approximated versions at depth 2,3, and 4, for 1000 randomly chosen 256-bits numbers
full-greedy full-greedy
72 dist. to greedy at depth 3 72 dist. to greedy at depth 4
64 64
56 56
dist. to greedy / # of digits
48
48
40
40
32
32
24
24
16
16
8
8
0
0
-8
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
# of experiments # of experiments
Figure 6: Number of digits obtained with the full-greedy (upper curves) and its difference with
the approximated versions at depth 2,3, and 4, for 1000 randomly chosen 512-bits numbers
15
same result as the F-greedy algorithm, i.e. the largest 2-integer less than or equal to x. It is
also interesting to remark that at medium depth (d = 3 or 4), the size of the representations
can be very close to the F-greedy ones, and in some cases even better, i.e., with fewer digits.
Depending on the application, we might not need the F-greedy DBNS representation, but
rather satisfy with an approximated one, with slightly more digits, especially if the time required
for the conversion drops down. Another consequence of using A-greedy is that the binary
exponent is likely to be smaller at small depths than with F-greedy. It is clear that the ternary
exponent increases at the same time, but not as fast as the binary exponent decreases (the ratio
is α 0.63).
As an example of such application for which the A-greedy approach can be advantageous,
complexity depends on the DBNS representation of some quantity e. The complexity of our
algorithm (the number of elementary operations) is equal to the largest binary exponent plus
the size of the DBNS representation of e. The largest ternary exponent only influences the
precomputations and memory requirements. In Table 5, we give a few examples, which clearly
show the gain we get with the A-greedy compared to the F-greedy solution for this specific
cryptographic application. We can remark that the loss in the precomputation step, directly
7 Discussions
A straightforward approach to the problem of finding the largest 2-integer less than or equal to x
consists in computing the distance between the line ∆ of equation v = −αu+β for every integers
u from 0 to log2 (x), and to keep the values (u, v) which lead to the smallest horizontal (or
vertical) distance, i.e., the smallest fractional part of β − αu for all integers 0 ≤ u ≤ log2 (x).4
In Fig. 7, we have plotted the line ∆ of equation v = −0.6309u + 0.7495 which corresponds
to the previous example, together with the points we have to scan if we perform the exhaustive
3
We do not give any details about this algorithm in this article, since this research is currently under progress
and a journal paper is being prepared.
4
More efficiently, we can consider the line ∆ : w = − log2 (3)u + log2 (x), and keep the minimum distance
among all integers 0 ≤ u ≤ log 3 (x), simply because the function log3 (t) grows faster than log2 (t).
16
# digits Max bin Max tern # Operations Gain
F-greedy 35 192 134 227
A-greedy (d = 3) 38 75 154 113 114
F-greedy 36 231 137 267
A-greedy (d = 3) 36 132 154 168 99
F-greedy 33 199 151 232
A-greedy (d = 3) 40 75 151 115 117
F-greedy 35 227 147 262
A-greedy (d = 2) 48 67 148 115 147
F-greedy 33 189 145 222
A-greedy (d = 2) 46 70 152 116 106
F-greedy 35 170 149 205
A-greedy (d = 2) 54 65 159 119 86
Table 5: Gain achieved with the A-greedy compared to the F-greedy for specific cryptographic
search as explained in the previous paragraph, and those we deduce from Algorithm 2. We
clearly remark that the algorithm based on continued fractions and Ostrowski’s number system
we have presented in section 3 only scans four possible solutions, whereas the straightforward
For large values of x, Algorithm 2 is much faster than the exhaustive search. Our ex-
periments, on thousands of randomly chosen numbers, show a speedup of about 35%. The
7.2 Precomputations
Continued fraction expansions are generally expensive to compute. Hopefully, in our case,
α = log3 2 only depends on the DBNS’ parameters, i.e., the bases 2 and 3. The partial quotients,
ai , the convergents, pi , qi , and the sequence (fi )i = (|qi α − pi |)i can thus be precomputed and
stored in lookup tables. The number of elements we have to precompute depends on the size of
the input value x we want to convert. Assume that x is an n-bit integer, i.e., 2n ≤ x < 2n+1 .
Since the binary exponent, a, satisfies 0 ≤ a ≤ log2 x, we have 0 ≤ a < n + 1. Our algorithm
returns the digits of a in the Ostrowski representation. Thus a = m i=1 ci qi−1 < n + 1. Prop. 1
ensures the uniqueness of Ostrowski’s representation. Thus, m, the maximum index is the value
i such that qi < n + 1 ≤ qi+1 . For example, if 264 ≤ x < 265 , since q6 = 65, we only need the
17
22
(1,21)
(0,21)
(9,16)
16
(17,11)
11
0
0 1 9 17 35
Figure 7: Graphical interpretation of the problem of finding the largest 2-integer less than (or
equal) to x = 23832098195 and the points scanned using both the straightforward approach and
precompute the sequences pn and qn up to qm+1 . (We recall that when ni is odd, Algorithm 2
performs ki+1 = ki − ci qn1 + qni +1 .) Table 6 gives the number of elements of the sequences ai ,
pi , qi , fi that have to be stored based on the size of the input number x. The conclusion is that
Table 6: Number of elements of the sequences ai , pi , qi , and fi that must be precomputed based
for most applications, both the F-greedy and A-greedy algorithms can be implemented at a very
18
8 Conclusions
the problem of findind the largest 2-integer less than or equal to a positive integer x, when
lookup tables cannot be used. This operation is required at each step of a greedy algorithm
which converts binary numbers into DBNS. An approximated version of the greedy algorithm,
called A-greedy, is also presented, which only looks for a ”not-too-bad” 2-integer less than x
at each step. Experimental results illustrate the efficiency and potential advantages of our
approach for specific applications where large numbers are required such as in cryptography.
Others applications, for example in digital signal processing, can undoubtedly take advantages
of this approximated greedy solution. This study will be investigated further to answer some
more difficult questions related to the double-base number system and its generalization, the
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