Developing application oriented computer architectures on general purpose microprogrammable machines

ABSTRACT

Surveying contemporary commercially available computers reveals a general incongruity between computer architectures and the problems the computers are being used to solve. Surveying the commercial applications of microprogramming reveals that microprogramming remains largely an alternative technique for manufacturer implementation of basic machine language instruction sets. With the large number of contemporary general purpose microprogrammable computers (especially minicomputers), the advantages of microprogramming are available to ordinary users for solving specific problems. From a pragmatic view, the architecture of a computer is defined by the microprograms resident in its control store. Changing the microprograms in a computer's control store therefore redefines its architecture. Architectures may be defined for specific problems by changing the microprogram in control store for each problem. As problems are represented by higher level language programs, compilers can automatically generate a microprogram for each higher level language program. The generated microprogram, when loaded into control store prior to program execution, defines an architecture that efficiently supports program characteristics. The advantage of this scheme is that it utilizes the power of microprogramming for each user's specific problem without forcing the user to comprehend the implementation complexities of a particular microprogrammable machine. This paper investigates several techniques for architecture redefinition via microprogramming.

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