Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to the design of an integer division circuit, which comprises: a dividend-input that receives an integer dividend A; a divisor-input that receives an integer divisor B; a quotient-output that outputs an integer quotient q; and a division engine that executes the Goldschmidt method to divide A by B to produce q. During a pre-processing operation, which commences executing before the Goldschmidt method starts executing, the division engine determines whether A<B. If A<B, the division engine sets q=0 without having to execute the Goldschmidt method.