Currently, the bit_ceil function is implemented as:

unsigned int bit_ceil(unsigned int n) { unsigned int x = 1; while (x < (unsigned int)(n)) x *= 2; return x; }

This works correctly, but it uses a loop and can take up to log(n) iterations. It can be rewritten in constant time using standard bit-twiddling techniques, which are generally more efficient and can compile down to ~5 instructions.

Suggested optimized implementation:

unsigned int bit_ceil(unsigned int n) { if (n == 0) return 1; n--; n |= n >> 1; n |= n >> 2; n |= n >> 4; n |= n >> 8; n |= n >> 16; return n + 1; }

This implementation:

• Avoids the loop entirely
• Works in constant time for all 32-bit unsigned integers

It would be great to update the function to this version for better performance.