Title :
Superscalar instruction issue in an asynchronous microprocessor
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Manchester Univ., UK
fDate :
9/1/1996 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
The implementation of the instruction issuer for a superscalar asynchronous microprocessor (SCALP) is described as a case study in asynchronous design. The issuer accepts five instructions at a time from the memory interface and issues them out of order to five parallel functional units. SCALP´s architecture is designed to reduce the complexity of the instruction issuer by removing the need to detect dependencies between instructions as they are issued. The design has a regular cellular structure suitable for VLSI implementation. The issue´s performance is sufficient that no bottleneck forms in the SCALP pipeline
Keywords :
asynchronous circuits; instruction sets; microprocessor chips; parallel architectures; protocols; SCALP; cellular structure; instruction issuer; memory interface; parallel functional units; superscalar asynchronous microprocessor; superscalar instruction; token passing;
Journal_Title :
Computers and Digital Techniques, IEE Proceedings -
DOI :
10.1049/ip-cdt:19960721