implementation of bitwise operators

[iStrannik]

Hello, team!

Is it possible in the current winterfell implementation to use bitwise operations for field elements? For 8-bit or 16-bit values, for example.

Simple example - we have two columns a and b and we need to proof a[i+1] = a[i] & b[i];
If a and b can contain only 1-bit values, it is pretty easy.
we need to verify

- a[i] * (a[i] - 1) = 0 // check that a[i] is 0 or 1
- b[i] * (b[i] - 1) = 0 // check that b[i] is 0 or 1
- a[i+1] - a[i] * b[i] = 0 // check that a[i+1] = a[i] & b[i]

But when a[i] and b[i] are not 1-bit values, the task becomes very difficult.

Is there such an opportunity planned in the future?