On the Minimization of the Control Store in Microprogrammed Computers

1 December 1978

journal article
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Transactions on Computers

Vol. C-27 (12) , 1189-1192
https://doi.org/10.1109/tc.1978.1675024

Abstract

A new approach is presented for the minimization of the word length of the control store in microprogrammed computers. Given the set of microinstructions and the set of microcommands of a microprogrammed computer a minimal subset of microcommands are determined so that every other microcommand not contained in this minimal subset to be generated from it by a single AND or OR gate. The problem of finding such minimal subsets of microcommands is formulated as a Boolean function simplification problem and is based upon an extension of the notion of the minimal dependence sets of a Boolean function.

Keywords

This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:

Microprogramming: Perspective and Status
IEEE Transactions on Computers, 1974
On Control Memory Minimization in Microprogrammed Digital Computers
IEEE Transactions on Computers, 1973
On the Minimization of READ-ONLY Memories in Microprogrammed Digital Computers
IEEE Transactions on Computers, 1970
An algorithm for minimizing read only memories for machine control
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,1968