Nanoprogramming

Extending microprogramming

Microprogramming
Microprogram counter

The microprogram counter contains The address of the next microinstruction to be executed.

Microprogram memory

Microinstruction register

Microprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

The microprogram memory contains all the microinstructions. Each machine level instruction is interpreted by one or more microinstructions.

Microinstruction register

Microprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

If there are n machine-level instructions and each instruction is interpreted by m microinstructions, the size of the microprogram ROM is n.m lines.

Microinstruction register

Microprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

Microinstruction register

The microinstruction register holds the bits of the current microinstruction. If this is p bits wide, the total size of the microprogram memory in bits is n.m.p

Microprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

This structure requires a lot of fast microinstruction storage. For example, if there are 512 machine-level instructions, and each instruction is interpreted by four 200-bit microinstructions, the size of the ROM is 512 x 4 x 200 = 409,600 bits (51,200 bytes)

Microinstruction register

Nanoprogramming
Microprogram counter

Nanoprogramming reduces the number of control bits require to interpret an instruction set.

Microprogram memory

Microinstruction register

Microinstructions are very long; for example 200 bits. This requires a large amount of storage.
Nanoinstruction Memory

However, of all the possible different microinstructions, a typical Microprogram ROM contains only a tiny fraction of possible microinstructions.
Nanoinstruction register

Nanoprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

The microprogram memory (control ROM) is now much narrower because it contains pointers to the actual microinstructions.

Microinstruction register

Nanoinstruction Memory

Nanoinstruction register

Nanoprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

Microinstruction register

The microinstruction register contains a short pointer that points to the nanoinstruction memory.

Nanoinstruction Memory

Nanoinstruction register

Nanoprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

Microinstruction register

Nanoinstruction Memory

The nanoinstruction memory contains the actual microinstructions and is very wide.

Nanoinstruction register

Nanoprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

Suppose that a microinstruction is 200 bits wide and that the microprogram memory contains only 120 unique microinstructions. Thus, out of 2200 possible microinstructions, only 120 are actually used. Each microinstruction in the control ROM cam be replaced by a pointer that requires only 7 bits.

Microinstruction register

Nanoinstruction Memory

27 = 128 < 120

Nanoinstruction register

Nanoprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

Microinstruction register

Nanoinstruction Memory

The nanoinstruction memory contains the 120 unique 100-bitwide microinstructions.

Nanoinstruction register

Nanoprogramming
Microprogram counter

Microprogram memory

Lets use the previous example, with 512 machine-level instructions, where each instruction is interpreted by four 200-bit microinstructions. The size of the control ROM without nanoprogramming is 512 x 4 x 200 = 409,600 bits (51,200 bytes)

Microinstruction register

With nanoprogramming (and assuming 120 unique microinstructions) the control ROM now requires 512 x 4 x 7 = 2048 x 7 = 14,336 bits because the 200-bit microinstruction has been replaced by a 7-bit pointer.
The nanoinstruction memory contains 120 200-bit microinstructions or 120 x 200 = 24,000 bits.

Nanoinstruction Memory

The total size of the read-only memory is the sum of the microinstruction memory and nanoinstruction memories or 14,336 + 24,000 = 38,336 bits (4,792 bytes). Nanoprogramming has reduced the storage requirement by a factor of 10

Nanoinstruction register