MSP430G2452: Simple arithmetic question

As you might have found out, the ^ operator in C/C++ is an exclusive-or function. There is no exponentiation operator.

If you are really just using integer powers, multiplication is possibly the fastest and works with integers or floating point: 2*2*2

For general exponentiation, you need to use the math library. Here is a simple program:

#include <math.h>

main()
{
double result;
result = pow(2.0, 3.0);
}

Any C reference could have told you this.