before the figures will be explained in greater detail , the derivation of the inventive division concept which bases on a modular reduction of a first product of the numerator and the factor will be explained , wherein the modulus equals a sum of a second product of the denominator and the factor and an integer . the result q of a division of a numerator a by a denominator n according to the following equation is sought : without limiting the generality , it is assumed that both the numerator a and the denominator n are binary numbers , so that the following applies : equations 2a and 2b indicate the orders of magnitude of the numerator a and the denominator n . wherein the value h is greater than or equal to 0 and smaller than n . it becomes evident from equation 3a that the result q of the division which will subsequently be of interest is the integer result while the quantity h is the remainder . the result q of the division of a and n thus represents the result of the so - called div operation , while the remainder h is obtained by the modular reduction of the numerator a and the denominator n as a modulus : it is to be pointed out that every floating - point division can be reduced to an integer division , namely , for example , by shifting the point and by rounding to the next integer . usually , floating - point divisions are reduced to integer divisions within a calculating unit . according to the invention , a factor f is introduced which , in the case of a binary number system , is defined as follows : the number 2 is the base since exemplarily only a binary number system is considered here , while the factor f results when the base 2 is raised to the power of an exponent e . according to the invention , the factor f must fulfil the following condition : thus , the factor is determined such that the product of the factor f and the denominator of the division ( equation 1 ) is greater than the result q of the division sought . it is to be pointed out that the exact result q of the division need not be known for this consideration because this is what is to be calculated . only the order of magnitude of q must be known in order to correctly dimension the factor f . usually it is , however , no problem to estimate the order of magnitude of the result of the division of the numerator and the denominator , in particular as equation 6 only includes a greater - than condition , so that a correct procedure of the algorithm is always ensured when the factor f is selected to be very large . it is , however , preferred to rather select the factor to be smaller since the factor determines the length of the registers required for calculating the division . if the factor is selected to be very large , very long registers will be required , while shorter registers are sufficient when the factor f is selected to be smaller . the following equation 8 indicates a preferred dimensioning of the quantity e for the binary case ( equation 5 ): equation 8 only contains information on the numerator a ( equation 2a ) and information on the denominator n ( equation 2b ). if e is dimensioned as in equation 8 , the condition for the factor of equation 6 will always be fulfilled . when equation 3 is multiplied by the factor f , the following equation results : when additionally equation 4 is also multiplied by the factor f on both sides , equation 10 will be the result : equation 11 indicates that the result of the modular reduction of equation 10 must be within the remainder class of the modulus n · f , i . e . larger than or equal to 0 and smaller than n · f . the result q is then added to and simultaneously subtracted from the right side of equation 9 , which corresponds to the following equation : when equation 12 is transformed such that the result q of the first two terms on the right side of equation 12 is factored out , the following expression results : alternatively , equation 12 can also be transformed such that the sum of hf and q and not the difference of the two terms is formed : a transformation of equation 13 or 13 ′ such that the difference h · f − q ( or the sum of this ) is on the left side of the equation , results in the following expression : when equation 14 or 14 ′ is then compared to equations 3a and 3b , it becomes evident that equation 14 is a new determination equation for a new division , wherein the difference or sum on the left side of equation 14 or 14 ′, i . e . the auxiliary quantity ( h · f − q ) or ( h · f + q ), in which the result q sought for is contained , corresponds to the remainder of an integer division of a numerator a · f by a denominator ( n · f + 1 ) or ( n · f − 1 ). the remainder of this division , i . e . the auxiliary quantity on the left side of equation 14 , can be calculated by the following equation 15 in analogy to equation 4 : equation 15 thus represent the modular reduction which gives the auxiliary quantity h · f − q as the result , from which , as will be illustrated subsequently , the result q sought for can be extracted in different manners without considerable complexity . equation 15 thus is the central modular reduction to which the division ( equation 1 ) has been reduced . it is also to be noted that the difference on the left side of the previous equation could also be negative . in this case , the modulus is added in order for the equation to be true , in particular as the result of a modular reduction , as the definition says , may not be negative . as will be explained subsequently , there are different possibilities to extract the result q sought from the auxiliary quantity h · f +/− q . for this , reference will first be made to fig3 to show a manner for extracting the result q of the division of the numerator a by the denominator n . fig3 shows a binary long - number register 300 into which the result of the modular reduction of the right side of equation 15 has been stored . the long - number register has an msb side and an lsb side ( msb = most significant bit ; lsb = least significant bit ). the numbers h · f and q are then in the register 300 as will be explained subsequently . the number h · f is a large number and , as regards its bit pattern , corresponds to the number h as is illustrated in fig3 , since the number h · f is obtained from the number h when the number h is shifted by i positions to the left in the long - number register , wherein the factor f is selected to be 2 e . in addition , a , compared to the number h · f , small number “+/− q ” is contained in the binary long - number register 300 of fig3 , i . e . the negative or positive of the result q sought . if the long - number register 300 is large and the factor f has been selected to be as large that the numbers h and − q and + q , respectively , do not overlap in the register 300 , wherein such a case is illustrated in fig3 , the number − q sought can be read out directly from the register 300 . the number q results after inverting − q . for this , the corresponding bits on the lsb side of the register are to be considered ( which results in − q ). subsequently , in the usual usage of the two &# 39 ; s complement , the bit pattern contained therein is inverted , after which a one is added to the inverted bits to obtain the result q sought . thus , only a simple arithmetic operation in the form of adding a one to the inverted bits is required . no larger arithmetic operations , such as , e . g ., a subtraction using the register contents etc ., are required . due to the size differences of the numbers h · f and q , it is easily possible to somehow read q separately from the register 300 , i . e . extract it from the auxiliary quantity ( the left side of equation 15 ). it is to be pointed out that the factor f need not be selected to be so great that the numbers h and − q in the register shown in fig3 do not have overlapping regions . even if these numbers do have an overlapping region , it is also possible , as will be explained subsequently , to extract the number q from the auxiliary quantity . another modular reduction is executed for this , as is illustrated in equation 16 : equation 16 corresponds to equation 4 , wherein the factor f is , however , taken into consideration here . the result q sought in this case results by subtracting equation 15 from the result of equation 16 : the following differentiation of cases when the auxiliary quantity , i . e . the difference h · f − q , is negative is to be pointed out . if the difference h · f − q in equation 15 is negative , the modulus ( n · f + 1 ) is added to the left side of equation 15 , since , according to definition , the result of a modular reduction is always to be positive . if the auxiliary quantity is negative so that a modulus is added to the left side in equation 15 , this will be taken into consideration when subtracting equation 15 from equation 16 as follows : subsequently , fig1 will be dealt with to explain a block diagram of a preferred device for calculating a result or , as will be explained later , an integer multiple of the result q of a division of a numerator by a denominator . the determination equations , for reasons of clarity , are illustrated in fig1 in a block 10 . the inventive device includes means 12 for providing a factor and , in particular , a number e which forms the factor as the exponent of the base 2 , so that equation 6 and equation 7 , respectively , are fulfilled . the inventive device further includes means 14 for calculating the auxiliary quantity , i . e . for carrying out equation 15 . finally , the inventive device includes means 16 for extracting q from the auxiliary quantity in one of different manners , such as , e . g ., by the mechanism described in fig3 or by calculating another modular reduction ( equation 16 ) and by subtracting the result of the two modular reductions , as is illustrated by equation 17 . subsequently , reference will be made to fig2 to illustrate a preferred method which can do with four registers only , i . e . a first register for the numerator a , a second register for the denominator n , a third register for the first auxiliary quantity hi and a fourth register h 2 for the second auxiliary quantity . optionally , a fifth result register can be used , or the numerator register , the denominator register or the third register for the first auxiliary quantity can be used as the result register when desired . in a step 20 , the value e is at first selected according to equation 8 . subsequently , the numerator register is loaded with the first product a · f ( step 22 ). then , the denominator register is also re - loaded , with the second product ( 24 ). in a step 26 , a modular reduction according to equation 16 is calculated . subsequently , after the calculation in step 26 , the denominator is incremented by 1 ( step 28 ) to calculate the central reduction equation 15 in step 30 . in step 32 , a subtraction of the two relevant equations 15 and 16 is performed , as is illustrated by equation 17 . after calculating the difference in step 32 , step 34 checks whether the result is negative . if this is the case , the modulus will be added ( step 36 ) to obtain the result q of the division ( step 38 ). if it is , however , determined in step 34 that the result obtained by step 32 is larger than 0 , this result will be output directly as the result of the division ( step 38 ′). it is to be pointed out that the embodiment of the present invention shown in fig2 can be used with special advantage when the numbers h and q are overlapping in the binary long - number register 300 of fig3 since in this case the processes described referring to fig3 of reading out the lowest bits of the register 300 and subsequently of inverting to obtain the result q do not lead to correct results . in the embodiment of the present invention shown in fig2 , means 16 for extracting the result q from the difference h · 2 e − q includes the functionality of steps 26 , 32 , 34 and 36 . as will be explained subsequently , the inventive concept , without increased complexity , can also be used to calculate not only the result of a division but also the integer multiple of the division . this can easily be obtained when an integer x & gt ; 1 is inserted in the modulus on the right side of equation 15 instead of the number “ 1 ”, wherein at the same time the result q is also multiplied by the integer x on the left side of equation 15 , so that the following equation 19 results : if a number x larger than 1 is used , this must also be taken into consideration in equation 6 when selecting the factor f in that the factor , compared to x = 1 , must be x times the result . when considering equation 19 , it shows that the result q · x , which can , for example , be obtained by reading out the register , can either be used directly when a subsequent algorithm step does not require the result q but x times the result q . when the result q is required , when , however , the modular reduction with the modulus ( n · f + x ) for some reason can be calculated more easily than for the case x = 1 , this can alternatively be obtained by again dividing q by x . in particular in the case in which x is an integer multiple of 2 and the system is a binary system , this can be obtained by shifting the register by a corresponding number of positions to the right . when equation 19 is evaluated in analogy to equations 16 and 17 , x times q will be obtained . another alternative for extracting q or a multiple of q from equation 19 is to use the following equation 20 for evaluation , wherein equation 20 basically corresponds to equation 19 , wherein this time the integer y is to be selected to be different from x . when equation 20 is then subtracted from equation 19 , the result will be equation 21 . it is not the result q but an integer multiple of the result q , namely the difference of y and x that results on the left side of equation 21 . q can be obtained from equation 21 by performing a division by ( y − x ). this division can be dispensed with when y and x are selected such that the difference thereof equals 1 . q ·( y − x )= a · f mod ( n · f + x )− a · f mod ( n · f + y ) ( 21 ) it is to be mentioned that the parameters x and y may also be negative , in analogy to the procedure which has been set forth in connection with equations ( 13 ′) to ( 15 ′). the present invention , due to its flexibility , safety and performance , is suitable in particular for cryptographic algorithms and for cryptographic coprocessors on which a safe and efficient implementation of the modular reduction is typically implemented by means of a circuit . while this invention has been described in terms of several preferred embodiments , there are alterations , permutations , and equivalents which fall within the scope of this invention . it should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the methods and compositions of the present invention . it is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations , permutations , and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention .