A C version, using builting popcount

Works better with clang -O3, but also works if you only have gcc.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

unsigned long pairs(unsigned int n, unsigned long s) { 
  unsigned long result = 0;

  for(int d=1;d<=n;d++) { 
    unsigned long mx = 1 << d;
    unsigned long mask = mx - 1;

    unsigned long diff = (s >> (n - d)) ^ (s & mask);
    if (__builtin_popcountl(diff) <= 1)
      result |= mx;
  } 
  return result;

}

unsigned long f(unsigned long  n) { 
  unsigned long max = 1 << (n - 1);
#define BLEN (max / 2)
  unsigned char * buf = malloc(BLEN);
  memset(buf, 0, BLEN);
  unsigned long long * bufll = (void *) buf;

  for(unsigned long i=0;i<=max;i++) { 
    unsigned int r = pairs(n, i);
    buf[r / 8] |= 1 << (r % 8);
  } 

  unsigned long result = 0;

  for(unsigned long i=0;i<= max / 2 / sizeof(unsigned long long); i++) { 
    result += __builtin_popcountll(bufll[i]);
  } 

  free(buf);

  return result;
}

int main(int argc, char ** argv) { 
  unsigned int n = 1;

  while(1) { 
    printf("%d %ld\n", n, f(n));
    n++;
    if(n>24)
      break;
  } 
  return 0;
}