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Chapter 11 ½ Microprogramming and the Design of the Control Circuits in a Electronic Digital Computer 159

unit, regarded as being made up of a sequence of micro-operations, each of which is performed by the application of pulses to appropriate gates.

The other part of the control system is concerned with control of the sequence of micro-orders required to carry out each machine order, and with the operation of the gates required for the execution of each micro-order. This will be called the micro- control unit; it consists of a decoding tree, two rectifier matrices and two registers (additional to those of the control register unit) connected as indicated in Fig. 1, which shows how the pulses used to operate the gates in the arithmetical unit and control register unit are generated. A series of control pulses from a pulse generator are applied to the input of the decoding tree. Each pulse is routed to one of the output lines of the tree, according to the number standing in register I. The output lines all pass into a rectifier matrix A and the outputs of this matrix are the pulses which operate the various gates associated with micro-operations. Thus one input line of the matrix corresponds to one micro-order. The address of the micro-order is the number which must be placed in register I to cause the control pulse to be routed to the corresponding line. The output lines from the tree also pass into a second matrix B, which has its outputs connected to register II. This matrix has wired on it the address of the micro-order to be performed next in time so that the address of this micro-order is placed in register II. Just before the next control pulse is applied

to the input of the tree a connexion is established between register II and register I, and the address of the micro-order due to be executed next is transferred into register I. In this way the decoding tree is prepared to route the next incoming control pulse to the correct output line. Thus application of pulses alternately to the input of the tree and to the gate connecting registers I and II causes a predetermined sequence of micro-orders to be executed.

It is necessary to have means whereby the course of the micro-programme can be made conditional on whether a given digit in one of the registers of the arithmetical unit or control register unit is a 1 or a 0. The means of doing this is shown at X in Fig. 1. A two-way switch, controlled by a special flip-flop called a conditional flip-flop, is inserted between matrix A and matrix B. The conditional flip-flop can be set by an earlier micro-order with any digit from any one of the registers. Two separate addresses are wired into matrix B, and the one which passes into register I, and thus becomes the address of the next micro-order, is determined by the setting of the conditional flip-flop.

Conditional micro-orders play the same part in the construction of micro-programmes as conditional orders play in the construction of ordinary programmes; apart from their obvious uses in micro-programmes for such operations as multiplication and division, they enable repetitive loops of micro-orders to be used.

If desired, two branchings may be inserted in the connexions between matrix A and matrix B, so that any one of four alternative addresses for the next micro-order may be selected according to the settings of two conditional flip-flops. Another possibility is to make the output from the decoding tree branch before it enters matrix A so that the nature of the micro-operation that is performed depends on the setting of the conditional flip-flop.

The micro-programme wired on to the matrices contains sections for performing the operations required by each order in the basic order code of the machine. To initiate the operation it is only necessary that control in the micro-programme should be sent to the correct entry point. This is done by placing the function digits of the order in the least significant part of register II, the other digits in this register being made zero. The micro-programme is constructed so that when this number passes into register I, control in the micro-programme is sent to the correct entry point.

The switching system in the arithmetical unit may either be designed to permit a large variety of micro-operations to be performed, or it may be restricted so as to allow only a small number of such operations. In a machine with a comprehensive order code there is much to be said for having the more flexible switching system since this will enable an economy to be made in the number of micro-orders needed in the micro-programme.

A similar remark applies in connexion with the degree of flexibility to be provided when designing the switching system for the control register unit. If the specification of the machine allows the same number of registers to be used in the arithmetical and
 
 

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