Overview

So far in the course, we have looked at the

processor design and assumed that the
control portion worked (somehow)
In this section, we will
EE 4504 – Survey the control unit operation
– Highlight design methods using
Computer Organization » Hardwired control
» Microprogrammed control
Reading:
Section 10 – Chapter 14 -- Review. Basic concepts covered
in EE 2504
Control Unit Overview
– Chapter 15
» Read Sec. 15.1
» Scan Sec 15.2, 15.3, 15.5
» Omit Sec 15.4

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 Control Unit Function

We have already seen that General layout of a control unit is shown

– Programs are executed as a sequence of below
instructions
– Each instruction consists of a series of steps
that make up the instruction cycle -- fetch,
decode, etc.
Each of these steps are, in turn, made up of
a smaller series of steps called
microoperations
Thus, the control unit operation can be
defined by
– Defining the elements of the CPU
– Defining the microoperations the CPU performs
– Determining the functions the control unit must
perform to cause the execution of the
microoperations in the desired time sequence
» Sequencing
» Execution
Figure 14.4 Control unit layout
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 Microoperations

Each step of the instruction cycle can be Control unit design is then the collection
decomposed into microoperation and the implementation of all of the
primitives that are performed in a precise needed control signals
time sequence
– Instruction fetch:
t1: MAR <-- (PC)
t2: MBR <-- memory
PC <-- PC+1
t3: IR <-- (MBR)
– Add R1, X
t1: MAR <-- (IR(address))
t2: MBR <-- memory
t3: R1 <-- (R1) + (MBR)
Each microoperation is initiated and
controlled based on the use of control
signals / lines coming from the control unit
– Cause data to move from one register to another
– Activate specific ALU functions
Figure 14.5 Data paths and control signals

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 Two approaches
– Hardwired logic
» Control unit is viewed as a sequential logic
circuit
» Used to generate fixed sequences of control
signals
» Implemented using any of a variety of
“standard” digital logic techniques
» Principle advantages
High(er) speed operation
Smaller implementations (component
counts)
» Modifications to the design can be hard to
do
» Favored approach in RISC style designs

Figure 14.10 Control unit with decoded inputs

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– Microprogrammed control unit
» Control signal values for each
microoperation are stored in a memory
device -- the control store
» Reading the contents of the control store in
a prescribed order is equivalent to
sequencing through the microoperations
» Since the “program” of microoperations
and their control signal values are stored in
memory, microprogrammed units
Are more systematic with a well
defined format
Can be easily modified during the
design process
Require more components to
implement
Tend to be slower than hardwired units
(due to having to perform memory read
operations)
EE 4504 Section 10
Hardwired approach
Three general design approaches
– Traditional “state-table” method from a digital
logic course
» Can produce the minimum component
design
» Complex design that may be hard to modify
– Clocked delay element
» Straight-forward layout based on flowchart
of the intruction implementation
» Requires more delay elements (flip flops)
than are really needed
– Sequence counter approach
» Polyphase clock signals are dervied from
the master clock using a standard counter-
decoder approach
» These signals are applied to the
combinational portion of the circuit
Example: load register B (control signal
C12)
– C12 = T4I3 +T5I6Z +T6I24P
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 Microprogramming
The concept of microprogramming was
developed by Maurice Wilkes in 1951,
using diode matrices for the memory
element
Figure 15.5 Wilkes’ microprogrammed control unit
EE 4504 Section 10
Modern microprogrammed control units
have replaced the diode matrices with
standard memory components
– The control unit operates by performing
consecutive control storage reads to generate
the next set of control function outputs
Performing the series of control memory
accesses is, in effect, executing a program
for each instruction in the machine’s
instruction set -- hence the term
microprogramming
The control unit appears to be a complete
computer within the larger computer --
with all of its problems
– How do you specify the next microinstruction
to be executed?
– How are branches handled?
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 Figure 15.7 Simple microprogrammed control unit Figure 15.6 More complex unit
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 For the typically large microprocessor
systems today, there are
– Many instructions and and associated register-
level hardware
– Many control point to be manipulated
This can result in a control memory that
– Contains a large number of words --
cooresponding to the number of instructions to
be executed
– Has a wide word width -- due to the large
number of control points to be manipulated
EE 4504 Section 10
Most modifications to the basic design of a
microprogrammed control unit have been
concerned with the word length
Length is based on 3 factors
– Maximum number of simultaneous
microoperations that must be supported
– The was the control information is represented
or encoded
– The way in which the next microinstruction
address is specified
Designer must choose the parallel “power”
of each instruction
– Each microinstruction specifies a single (or
few) microoperations to be performed (vertical
microprogramming)
– Each microinstruction specifies many different
microoperations to be performed in parallel
(horizontal microprogramming)
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 Vertical microprogramming
– Width is narrow: n control signals can be
encoded into log2n control bits
– Limited ability to express parallelism
– Considerable encoding of control information
requires external memory word decoder to
identify the exact control line being
manipulated
Horizontal microprogramming
– Wide memory word
– High degree of parallel operations are possible
– Little to no encoding of control information
Compromise
– Divide control signals into disjoint groups
– Implement each group as a separate field in the
memory word
– Supports reasonable levels of parallelism
without too much complexity
Control field formats [Hay88]

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 Second compromise: nanoprogramming
– Use a 2-level control storage organization
– Top level is a vertical format memory
» Output of the top level memory drives the
address register of the bottom (nano-level)
memory
– Nanomemory uses the horizontal format
» Produces the actual control signal outputs
– The advantage to this approach is significant
saving in control memory size (bits)
– Disadvantage is more complexity and slower
operation (doing 2 memory accesses fro each
microinstruction)

Nanoprogrammed machine [Hay88]

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 – Example: Supppose that a system is being
designed with 200 control points and 2048
microinstructions
– Assume that only 256 different combinations of
control points are ever used
– A single-level control memory would require
2048x200=409,600 storage bits
– A nanoprogrammed system would use
» Microstore of size 2048x8=16k
» Nanostore of size 256x200=51200
» Total size = 67,584 storage bits
Nanoprogramming has been used in many
CISC microprocessors
EE 4504 Section 10
Microprogramming application: emulation
– The use of a microprogram on one machine to
execute programs originally written to run on
another (different!) machine
– By changing the microcode of a machine, you
can make it execute software from another
machine
– Commonly used in the past to permit new
machines to continue to run old software
» VAX11-780 had 2 “modes”
Normal 11-780 mode
Emulation mode for a PDP-11
– The Nanodata QM-1 machine was marketed
with no native instruction set!
» Universal emulation engine
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 Summary

This section has oveviewed the operation

and the design of the control unit
Hardwired and microprogramming
techniques discussed
– Basic operation of each
– Advantages and disadvantages of each
– “Costs” associated with each

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