It is shown that the prime factor algorithm (PFA) has an intrinsic property that allows it to be easily realized in an in-place and in-order form. In contrast to other approaches that use two equations for loading data from and returning the results to the memory, respectively, it is shown formally that in many cases only one equation is enough for both operations. Thus a truly in-place and in-order computation is obtained. Nevertheless, the sequence length of the PFA computation must be carefully selected. The conditions under which a particular sequence length is possible for in-place and in-order PFA computation are analyzed.
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