foo.sol

pragma solidity ^0.4.0;

library ipfsUtils {

  function splitHash(bytes source) returns(bytes1, bytes1) {
    bytes1[2] memory hash = [bytes1(0), bytes1(0)];

    assembly {
        mstore(hash, source)
        mstore(add(hash, 1), source)
    }

    return (hash[0], hash[1]);
  }

}

contract Foo {
    
    function bar(bytes source) returns(bytes1, bytes1) {
        return ipfsUtils.splitHash(source);
    }
    
}

https://solidity.readthedocs.io/en/develop/assembly.html

0x7d5a99f603f231d53a4f39d1521f98d2e8bb279cf29bebfd0687dc98458e7f89

contract cutByte32 {

  //"0xa9c40ddcb43ebbc83add97b8f9f361f12b19bceff2f76b68f66b5bb1812365a9"
  //use this as remix command

  function cut(bytes32 sha) constant returns (uint8 tag, uint8 len, bytes32 hash) {
    assembly {
      let freemem_pointer := mload(0x40)
      mstore(add(freemem_pointer,0x00), sha)
      hash := mload(add(freemem_pointer,0x00))
    }
  }
}