On Certain Investigations on Control Memory Minimization in Microprogrammed Digital Computers

Abstract

With the advent of high-speed high-capacity low-cost, and low-power storage devices, the role of microprogramming has opened a new dimension in designing systems. And minimization of control memory bit dimension constitutes a major problem in the synthesis of a microprogrammed digital system. This paper investigates the problem from a given microprogram word organization, developes certain results and pre-estimates about the possible minimal cost of implementation and finally describes a simplified search methodology to pick up one of the minimal solutions with very little computational labour. A procedure for generation of all maximal compatible classes of the microcommands from the given word organization has also been described.

Indexing Terms:

• Control Memory
• Descriptive Matrix
• Minimization
• Microprogrammed Digital Computer