Introduction to VLSI Systems
2n-way jump microinstruction hardware and an effective instruction binding method
MICRO 13 Proceedings of the 13th annual workshop on Microprogramming
Microinstruction sequencing and structured microprogramming
MICRO 7 Conference record of the 7th annual workshop on Microprogramming
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JAM (Just Another Microsequencer) is a flexible - dual role microcode sequencer. It supports high performance N-Way microsequencing operations (traditional 360/370 type branch address generation techniques), along with more traditional (a la AMD 2910) sequencing control over “structured” microcode. A unique feature of the chip is that the degree of parallel branching can be changed dynamically. That is, the chip can be reconfigured to support 2-way, 4-way, … up to 256-way branching on a 14 bit Control Store address.There are 16 microsequencing operations supported including:Next Sequential Control Store AddressN-Way Branch, N-Way Call and N-Way Return (Including several submodes)Conditional Branch, Conditional Call and Conditional ReturnLoop ControlAn on-chip stack provides micro-routine nesting up to 8 levels deep. The stack is also used for looping and a special conditional branching mechanism. The chip has been designed and fabricated using 4 micron NMOS technology and has a cycle time of under 100 nanoseconds.