stx	divisor
	sty	dividend
	ldx	#16
	lda	#0
lp	asl	dividend
	rol
	cmp	divisor
	bcc	nextbit
	sbc	divisor
	inc	dividend
nextbit	dex
	bne	lp
;"dividend" now contains the result of the division.
	sta	remainder

It is rather sneaky, and yes, it is correct. What it does is essentially the
same computation, but it shifts the result into the dividend location instead
of a seperate result location. However, I like the carry flag technique used
by Shadow's code, so let's add it in:

	stx	divisor
	sty	dividend
	ldx	#16
	lda	#0
lp	rol	dividend
	rol
	cmp	divisor
	bcc	nextbit
	sbc	divisor
nextbit	dex
	bne	lp
	rol	dividend
;"dividend" now contains the result of the division.
	sta	remainder

Note that now when a 1 bit is entered into the result, we save 7 cycles. We
do perform an extra ROL at the end however. The relative performance is
determined by what kind of answers we expect: result of 0, new code is 7
cycles slower; result is power of two, new code is the same speed; otherwise
the new code is faster (and this is most of the time so we judge this a win).

Note that the first ROL to dividend shifts in a garbage bit, which is shifted
out by the final one. That is what we are spending in order to make part of
the main loop faster, and in this case we expect to save time overall so it's
a good thing. What's interesting is that the effect is that of PRESERVING the
carry flag of the caller. This is sometimes a big concern for assembly routines
because the carry flag is a great place to pass booleans.

Lastly, here's a slightly rearranged version for clarity:

	stx	divisor
	sty	dividend
	ldx	#16
	lda	#0
	rol	dividend
lp	rol
	cmp	divisor
	bcc	nextbit
	sbc	divisor
nextbit	rol	dividend
	dex
	bne	lp
;"dividend" now contains the result of the division.
	sta	remainder

We are now communicating the dividend bit instead of the result bit in the
carry flag when we branch back to lp. Note that we could also change the
initial ROL to an ASL, making the garbage bit a 0 and thereby setting the
carry flag to 0 at the end of the routine.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu