Microprogrammed State Machine Design

Book excerpt: Microprogrammed State Machine Design is a digital computer architecture text that builds systematically from basic concepts to complex state-machine design. It provides practical techniques and alternatives for designing solutions to data processing problems both in commerce and in research purposes. It offers an excellent introduction to the tools and elements of design used in microprogrammed state machines, and incoporates the necessary background in number systems, hardware building blocks, assemblers for use in preparing control programs, and tools and components for assemblers . The author conducts an in-depth examination of first- and second-level microprogrammed state machines. He promotes a top-down approach that examines algorithms mathematically to exploit the simplifications resulting from choosing the proper representation and application of algebraic manipulation. The steps involved in the cycle of design and simulation steps are demonstrated through an example of running a computer through a simulation. Other topics covered in Microprogrammed State Machine Design include a discussion of simulation methods, the development and use of assembler language processors, and comparisons among various hardware implementations, such as the Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC) and the Digital Signal Processor (DSP). As a text and guide, Microprogrammed State Machine Design will interest students in the computer sciences, computer architectects and engineers, systems programmers and analysts, and electrical engineers.