Binary-To-Decimal conversion based on the divisibility of 2⁸ - 1 BY 5

The Letter treats the case of converting a binary value, represented in the form of n bytes, into a decimal value, represented in the form of m BCD characters. The conversion, which is suitable for one-byte and two-byte processors, is based on the following observations: (a) 5 is a divisor of 2⁸ - 1 and 2¹⁶ - 1. (b) Modular binary arithmetic over 2^r - 1 is easily performed, (c) Binary division by 2^r - 1, in the case where the remainder is known to be zero, is easily performed, (d) All All the prime factors of 2⁸ - 1 and 2¹⁶ - 1 are of the form 2^{r+ 1}.