Bit-Slice Design: Controllers and ALUs

Refining the CCU

Last Edit November 2, 1996; May 1, 1999; July 7, 2001

AMD's Am2910 - A Slick Control Solution

Figure 4-7 AMD's Am2910 Supersequencer - now obsolete - solved many of the CCU construction problems

Am2910

The block diagram of the Am2910 is shown in Figure 4-8. This device is controlled by a 4-bit instruction, which would be supplied from one field of the microword format of the system. These four bits provide 16 basic instructions, which are similar but not identical with Am29811A instructions. They are discussed in detail in this chapter.

Figure 4-8 Am2910 Block Diagram

The Am2910 can address up to 4K of PROM/ROM memory. Unused address lines are left floating at the output; the corresponding D_i inputs should be tied to ground. It provides three output enables controls: PL', MAP', and VECT' (all are complementary - i.e., should have overbars). The 4-bit instruction, the result of the CC', CCEN' inputs and the internal zero detect for the register/counter all are inputs to an onboard instruction PLA (programmable logic array). The PLA provides the internal controls which correspond to the next-address control logic. The next address can be from one of four sources:

1. the microprogram counter (uPC)
2. the LIFO stack (F)
3. the register/counter (R)
4. or direct input (D) from whatever is connected to the Di inputs.

Di is connected to the tristated outputs of the vector map, the mapping PROM, and the pipeline in the example CCU developed so far.