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IA2910A

Microprogram Controller

Copyright

© 1999, InnovASIC Inc.

Customer Specific IC Solutions

transfer to the next instruction at address 53. If the test is failed, the next microinstruction at

address 94 will be executed. The program will continue to address 97 where the subroutine is

complete. To perform an unconditional RETURN-FROM-SUBROUTINE, the CRTN instruction

is executed unconditionally; the microinstruction at address 97 is programmed to force CCENn

HIGH, disabling the test and the forced PASS causes an unconditional return.

Instruction 11 CJPP is the CONDITIONAL JUMP PIPELINE register address and POP stack

instruction. This instruction provides another technique for loop termination and stack

maintenance. The example in Figure II shows a loop being performed from address 55 back to

address 51. The instructions at locations 52, 53, and 54 are all conditional JUMP and POP

instructions. At address 52, if the CCn input is LOW, a branch will be made to address 70 and the

stack will be properly maintained via a POP. Should the test fail, the instruction at location 53 (the

next sequential instruction) will be executed. Likewise, at address 53, either the instruction at 90 or

54 will be subsequently executed, respective to the test being passed or failed. The instruction at 54

follows the same rules, going to either 80 or 55. An instruction sequence as described here, using

the CJPP instruction, is very useful when several inputs are being tested and the microprogram is

looping waiting for any of the inputs being tested to occur before proceeding to another sequence

of instructions. This provides the powerful jump-table programming technique at the firmware

level.

Instruction 12 LDCT is the LOAD COUNTER AND CONTINUE instruction, which simply

enables the counter to be loaded with the value at its parallel inputs. These inputs are normally

connected to the pipeline branch address field which (in the architecture being described here)

serves to supply either a branch address or a counter value depending upon the microinstruction

being executed. There are altogether three ways of loading the counter –the explicit load by this

instruction 12; the conditional load included as part of instruction 4; and the use of the RLDn input

along with any instruction. The use of RLDn with any instruction overrides any counting or

decrementation specified in the instruction, calling for a load instead. Its use provides additional

microinstruction power, at the expense of one bit of microinstruction width. This instruction 12 is

exactly equivalent to the combination of instruction 14 and RLDn LOW. Its purpose is to provide

a simple capability to load the register/counter in those implementations which do not provide

microprogrammed control for RLDn.

Instruction 13 LOOP is the TEST END-OF-LOOP instruction, which provides the capability of

conditionally exiting a loop at the bottom; that is, this is a conditional instruction that will cause the

microprogram to loop, via the file, if the test is failed else to continue to the next sequential

instruction. The example in Figure II shows the LOOP microinstruction at address 56. If the test

fails, the microprogram will branch to address 52. Address 52 is on the stack because a PUSH

instruction had been executed at address 51. If the test is passed at instruction 56, the loop is

terminated and the next sequential microinstruction at address 57 is executed, which also causes the

stack to be POP’d; thus, accomplishing the required stack maintenance.

Instruction 14 CONT is the CONTINUE instruction, which simply causes the microprogram

counter to increment so that the next sequential microinstruction is executed. This is the simplest

microinstruction of all and should be the default instruction which the firmware requests whenever

there is nothing better to do.