The logarithm number system is an attractive alternative to the conventiona
l number systems when data needs to be manipulated at a very high rate over
a wide range. The major problem is deriving logarithms and antilogarithms
quickly and accurately enough to allow conversions to and from conventional
number representations. Efficient algorithms that convert the conventional
number representation to binary logarithm representations are proposed. Th
e algorithms adopt a factorisation approach to reduce the look-up table siz
e and a nonlinear approximation method to reduce the computational complexi
ty. Simulation results on IEEE single precision (24 bits) conversion are pr
esented, and the conversion requires only one ROM table with 2(13) x 26 bit
s, one with 2(13) x 14 bits, and one with 2(13) x 5 bits, or a total of 360
kbits.