Abstract: A method and apparatus for the arithmetic division operation is disclosed in which a set of multiples of the divisor are stored in an associative memory in addresses which match the respective multiples. The most significant byte of the numerator is then compared to the contents of each associative entry. A flag is generated signifying that the corresponding entry is less than or equal to the most significant byte of the numerator. After the flags have been generated, the address of the last flag which is on, is selected. This provides a trial "digit out", which is used to address the true table of multiples and select a value which is subtracted from the left-digit-shifted numerator (or intermediate result). If no underflow condition results, the trial "digit out" is valid and should be stored and the next iteration started. For an underflow condition, the "digit out" is decremented and stored, the X1 multiple is added to the numerator and the next iteration is carried out.