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Control Unit Part1

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12 views

Control Unit Part1

Uploaded by

ee23b029
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Control Unit for Contemporary Instruction

Set Processors
Part 1
Overview

⚫ CPU of an instruction set processor is


composed of two parts: (a) Datapath and
(b) Control unit.
⚫ The control unit is responsible for
sequencing the operations.
⚫ Will begin with the overall structure that
illustrates the control signals.

2
Processor with control signals

3
Explanation

⚫ The control signals corresponding to an


addition instruction of the form
ADD A, B
are shown where the result goes into the
register A
⚫ The functional unit F1 performs ADD

4
More on the control signals for ADD

⚫Three types of control signals are activated


by the control unit:
Function select: Add
Storage control: Read A, Read B, Write A
Data routing: Select p-t, Select u-w, Select v-x

5
How to implement this ?

⚫ Two approaches have been followed to generate control


signals:
Microprogrammed Control – applicable to
CISC processors like Intel Pentium,
Motorola 6800 etc. (more details soon).

Hardwired Control – applicable to RISC


processors like AVR Atmega8, ARM-based Snapdragon
etc. (focus here will be on this)

6
How does microprogrammed control look like ?

7
Overall idea

⚫ Designing the control as a program that


implements “high-level” instructions such as
ADD/SUB in terms of simpler instructions (read,
write, select etc.) is called microprogramming.
⚫ Control memory can be thought of as the one
that holds the microprogram and it puts out one
instruction at a time which gets decoded.
⚫ Will see what address logic (and status signals)
mean shortly.
8
Sample microprogram for

ADD AL, BL
ADDC AH, BH

AAA and B are double word operands; ADD handles


low-order half while ADDC handles high-order half
along with carry generated by low-order

9
Role of status signals and address logic

⚫ Recall our microprogram control structure also had a


block labelled “Address Logic” and Status Signals
applied to it. The address part is clear since we are
attempting to access the control memory.
⚫ The status signals can come from the datapath unit
and are based on some condition to be tested. The
result of the test can determine if we want to perform
Add or Subtract for example. It can also determine
another address to go to. Details in next slide.

10
Algorithm with conditions determining
the operation (Guess the algorithm !)

11
What algorithm is that ?

⚫ Recall Booth’s algorithm for signed number


multiplication.
⚫ To accommodate such conditional
operations, we need to expand the
microinstruction format presented earlier.
⚫ The details are given next.

12
Expansion of the microinstruction format

13
Advantages and Drawbacks of
Microprogrammed Control

⚫ Advantage of microprogrammed control is in terms


of flexibility: we can change the microprograms by
changing the contents of control memory.
⚫ Drawback is in terms of extra hardware (for control
memory and access circuitry). More importantly,
there is a degradation in performance due to time
required to access the microinstructions in control
memory.
⚫ Will discuss hardwired control in the next part.

14
Reference

⚫ J. Hayes, Computer Architecture and


Organization, McGraw-Hill, 2017.

15

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