Overview of Microprogramming

Reference: Bell, Siewiorek, Newell: Computer Principles: Structures and Examples, Part II, Section I, Microprogram-Based Processors. See especially chapters 11 and 13.

Relationship to FSM equations

Form of microoperations

Conventional microcontrollers

Control branch Micro-operations

  1. Incrementing mPC and WAIT for asynchronous waits, or with counter for one-step loops (e.g., multiply and divide)

  2. Conditional branch

  3. Three way branching with counters for timing or iteration

  4. Multiway (CASE) branching

  5. Procedure calling (Push/Pop)


Copyright 1995, Ben M. Huey
Copying this document without the permission of the author is prohibited and a violation of international copyright laws.

Rev. 9/21/95 B. Huey