Abstract: A cellular-array power-sum circuit designed to perform AB.sup.2 +C computations in the finite field GF(2.sup.m) is presented, where A, B, and C are arbitrary elements of GF(2.sup.m). This new circuit is made up of m.sup.2 identical cells each consisting of an AND logic unit and an exclusive-OR logic unit. The AND logic unit may be configured to comprise three 2-input AND gates, and the exclusive-OR logic unit may be configured to comprise one 4-input XOR gate. The presented cellular-array power-sum circuit has a computation time of 2m gate delays. It is this power-sum circuit that provides basis for using circuits of pipeline architectures to compute exponentiations, inversions, and divisions in GF(2.sup.m).