Chapter 7.

Basic
Processing Unit
Overview
 Instruction Set Processor (ISP)
 Central Processing Unit (CPU)
 A typical computing task consists of a series
of steps specified by a sequence of machine
instructions that constitute a program.
 An instruction is executed by carrying out a
sequence of more rudimentary operations.
Some Fundamental
Concepts
Fundamental Concepts
 Processor fetches one instruction at a time and
perform the operation specified.
 Instructions are fetched from successive memory
locations until a branch or a jump instruction is
encountered.
 Processor keeps track of the address of the memory
location containing the next instruction to be fetched
using Program Counter (PC).
 Instruction Register (IR)
Executing an Instruction
 Fetch the contents of the memory location pointed
to by the PC. The contents of this location are
loaded into the IR (fetch phase).
IR ← [[PC]]
 Assuming that the memory is byte addressable,
increment the contents of the PC by 4 (fetch phase).
PC ← [PC] + 4
 Carry out the actions specified by the instruction in
the IR (execution phase).
 Internal processor
bus
Control signals

PC

Instruction
Address
decoder and
lines
MAR control logic

Memory
bus

MDR
Data
lines IR

Y
Constant 4 R0

Select MUX

Add
A B
ALU Sub R n - 1
control ALU
lines
Carry -in

Processor Organization
XOR TEMP

Figure 7.1. Single-bus organization of the datapath inside a processor.

MDR HAS
TWO INPUTS
AND TWO
OUTPUTS

Datapath

Textbook Page 413

Executing an Instruction
 Transfer a word of data from one processor
register to another or to the ALU.
 Perform an arithmetic or a logic operation
and store the result in a processor register.
 Fetch the contents of a given memory
location and load them into a processor
register.
 Store a word of data from a processor
register into a given memory location.
Register Transfers Riin
Internal processor
bus

Ri

Riout

Yin

Constant 4

Select MUX

A B
ALU

Zin

Zout

Figure 7.2. Input and output gating for the registers in Figure 7.1.
 Bus

D Q
1
Q
Riout

Ri in
Clock

Register Transfers
Figure 7.3. Input and outputating
g for one gister
re bit.

 All operations and data transfers are controlled by the processor clock.

Figure 7.3. Input and output gating for one register bit.
Performing an Arithmetic or
Logic Operation
 The ALU is a combinational circuit that has no
internal storage.
 ALU gets the two operands from MUX and bus.
The result is temporarily stored in register Z.
 What is the sequence of operations to add the
contents of register R1 to those of R2 and store the
result in R3?
1. R1out, Yin
2. R2out, SelectY, Add, Zin
3. Zout, R3in
 Memory -bus Internal processor
data lines MDRoutE MDRout bus

Fetching a Word from Memory

MDR

MDR inE MDRin

Figure 7.4. Connection and control signals for

gister
re MDR.

 Address into MAR; issue Read operation; data into MDR.

Figure 7.4. Connection and control signals for register MDR.

Fetching a Word from Memory
 The response time of each memory access varies
(cache miss, memory-mapped I/O,…).
 To accommodate this, the processor waits until it
receives an indication that the requested operation
has been completed (Memory-Function-Completed,
MFC).
 Move (R1), R2
 MAR ← [R1]
 Start a Read operation on the memory bus
 Wait for the MFC response from the memory
 Load MDR from the memory bus
 R2 ← [MDR]
 MFC

MDR out

Figure 7.5. Timing of a memory Read operation.

Timing
MAR ← [R1]
Assume MAR
is always available
on the address lines
of the memory bus. Start a Read operation on the memory bus

Wait for the MFC response from the memory

Load MDR from the memory bus

R2 ← [MDR]
Execution of a Complete
Instruction
 Add (R3), R1
 Fetch the instruction
 Fetch the first operand (the contents of the
memory location pointed to by R3)
 Perform the addition
 Load the result into R1
Architecture Riin
Internal processor
bus

Ri

Riout

Yin

Constant 4

Select MUX

A B
ALU

Zin

Zout

Figure 7.2. Input and output gating for the registers in Figure 7.1.
 Execution of a Complete
Internal processor
bus
Control signals

PC

Instruction
Address
decoder and
lines
MAR control logic

Memory
bus

MDR
Data
lines IR

Step Action Y
Constant 4 R0

1 PCout , MAR in , Read, Select4,A dd, Zin Select MUX

2 Zout , PCin , Y in , WMF C

Add
A B
3 MDR out , IR in ALU Sub R n - 1
control ALU
4 R3out , MAR in , Read lines
Carry -in

Instruction
XOR TEMP
5 R1out , Y in , WMF C
6 MDR out , SelectY,Add, Zin Z

7 Zout , R1 in , End

Figure 7.1. Single-bus organization of the datapath inside a processor.

Figure 7.6. Control sequencefor executionof the instruction Add (R3),R1.

Add (R3), R1
Execution of Branch
Instructions
 A branch instruction replaces the contents of
PC with the branch target address, which is
usually obtained by adding an offset X given
in the branch instruction.
 The offset X is usually the difference between
the branch target address and the address
immediately following the branch instruction.
 Conditional branch
Execution of Branch
Instructions

Step Action

1 PCout , MAR in , Read, Select4,Add, Z in

2 Zout , PCin , Yin , WMF C
3 MDR out , IR in
4 Offset-field-of-IRout, Add, Z in
5 Z out , PCin , End

Figure 7.7. Control sequence for an unconditional branch instruction.

 f ile

Constant 4

MUX
A

ALU R

Multiple-Bus Organization
Instruction
decoder

IR

MDR

MAR

Memory b us Address
data lines lines

Figure 7.8. T hree-b

us organization of the datapath.
Multiple-Bus Organization
 Add R4, R5, R6

Step Action

1 PCout, R=B, MAR in , Read, IncPC

2 WMFC
3 MDR outB , R=B, IR in
4 R4outA , R5outB , SelectA, Add, R6in , End

Figure 7.9. Control sequence for the instruction. Add R4,R5,R6,

for the three-bus organization in Figure 7.8.
 Internal processor
bus
Control signals

PC

Instruction
Address
decoder and
lines
MAR control logic

Memory
bus

MDR
Data
lines IR

Y
Constant 4 R0

Select MUX

Add
A B
ALU Sub R n - 1
control ALU
lines
Carry -in
XOR TEMP

Quiz
Figure 7.1. Single-bus organization of the datapath inside a processor.

 What is the control

sequence for
execution of the
instruction
Add R1, R2
including the
instruction fetch
phase? (Assume
single bus
architecture)
Hardwired Control
Overview
 To execute instructions, the processor must
have some means of generating the control
signals needed in the proper sequence.
 Two categories: hardwired control and
microprogrammed control
 Hardwired system can operate at high speed;
but with little flexibility.
Control Unit Organization
CLK Control step
Clock counter

External
inputs
Decoder/
IR
encoder
Condition
codes

Control signals

Figure 7.10. Control unit organization.

 CLK
Clock Control step Reset
counter

Step decoder

T 1 T2 Tn

INS1
External
INS2 inputs
Instruction
IR Encoder
decoder
Condition
codes
INSm

Run End

Control signals

Figure 7.11. Separation of the decoding and encoding functions.

Detailed Block Description

Generating Zin
 Zin = T1 + T6 • ADD + T4 • BR + …
Branch Add

T4 T6

T1

Figure 7.12. Generation of the Zin control signal for the processor in Figure 7.1.
Generating End T7
Add

T5
N
Branch<0

T4
Branch

T5

End

Figure 7.13. Generation of the End control signal.

 End = T7 • ADD + T5 • BR + (T5 • N + T4 • N) • BRN +…

 Instruction Integer Floating-point
unit unit unit

Instruction Data
cache cache

Bus interface
Processor

Sy stem us
b

Main Input/
memory Output

Figure 7.14. Block diagram of a complete processor

.

A Complete Processor
Microprogrammed
Control
Overview
MDRout

WMFC
MAR in

Select
Read
PCout

R1out

R3out
Micro -

End
PCin

R1in
Add

Z out
IRin
Yin

Zin
instruction

1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
3 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

Control signals are generated by a program similar to machine

5 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0


6 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1

Figure 7.15 An example of microinstructions for Figure 7.6.

language programs.
 Control Word (CW); microroutine; microinstruction
 A control word(CW) is a word whose individual bits
represent the various control signals.
 Control-signals are generated by a program similar
to machine language programs.
 Control word(CW) is a word whose individual bits
represent various control-signals(like Add, End,
Zin).
 {Each of the control-steps in control sequence of an
instruction defines a unique combination of 1s & 0s
in the CW}.
 Individual control-words in microroutine are
referred to as microinstructions.
 A sequence of CWs corresponding to control-
sequence of a machine instruction constitutes the
 The microroutines for all instructions in the instruction-set of a
computer are stored in a special memory called the control
store(CS).
 Control-unit generates control-signals for any instruction by
sequentially reading CWs of corresponding microroutine from
CS.
 Microprogram counter(µPC) is used to read CWs sequentially
from CS.
 Every time a new instruction is loaded into IR, output of
"starting address generator" is loaded into µPC.
 Then, µPC is automatically incremented by clock, causing
successive microinstructions to be read from CS. Hence,
control-signals are delivered to various parts of processor in
correct sequence
 Step Action

1 PCout , MAR in , Read, Select4,A dd, Zin

2 Zout , PCin , Y in , WMF C
3 MDR out , IR in
4 R3out , MAR in , Read
5 R1out , Y in , WMF C
6 MDR out , SelectY,Add, Zin
7 Zout , R1 in , End

Overview
Figure 7.6. Control sequencefor executionof the instruction Add (R3),R1.
 Starting
IR address
generator

Clock PC

Control
store CW

Overview
Figure 7.16. Basic organization of a microprogrammed control unit.

 Control store

One function
cannot be carried
out by this simple
organization.
Overview
 The previous organization cannot handle the situation when the control
unit is required to check the status of the condition codes or external
inputs to choose between alternative courses of action.
 Use conditional branch microinstruction.
AddressMicroinstruction

0 PCout , MAR in , Read, Select4,Add, Z in

1 Zout , PCin , Y in , WMFC
2 MDRout , IR in
3 Branch to starting addressof appropriatemicroroutine
. ... .. ... ... .. ... .. ... ... .. ... ... .. ... .. ... ... .. ... .. ... ... .. ... ..
25 If N=0, then branch to microinstruction0
26 Offset-field-of-IRout , SelectY, Add, Z in
27 Zout , PCin , End

Figure 7.17. Microroutine for the instruction Branch<0.

Overview External
inputs

Starting and
branch address Condition
IR codes
generator

Clock PC

Control
store CW

Figure 7.18. Organization of the control unit to allow

conditional branching in the microprogram.
 ORGANIZATION OF MICROPROGRAMMED CONTROL UNIT (TO
SUPPORT CONDITIONAL BRANCHING)
 • In case of conditional branching, microinstructions specify
which of the external inputs, condition-codes should be
checked as a condition for branching to take place.
 • The starting and branch address generator block loads a
new address into µPC when a microinstruction instructs it to
do so.
 • To allow implementation of a conditional branch, inputs to
this block consist of → external inputs and condition-codes
→ contents of IR
 • µPC is incremented every time a new
microinstruction is fetched from microprogram
memory except in following situations
 i) When a new instruction is loaded into IR, µPC
is loaded with starting-address of microroutine
for that instruction.
 ii) When a Branch microinstruction is
encountered and branch condition is satisfied,
µPC is loaded with branch-address.
 iii) When an End microinstruction is
encountered, µPC is loaded with address of first
CW in microroutine for instruction fetch cycle.