Implementation of the PIPE processor

The PIPE (parallel instruction with pipelined execution) processor, which is the result of a research project initiated to investigate high-performance computer architectures for VLSI implementation, is described. The lessons learned from the implementation are discussed. The most important result was the discovery that supporting architectural queues does not complicate the instruction issue logic and fees the processor clock rate from external memory speed influences. It was also found that the decision to support an instruction set with two instruction sizes and to allow consecutive two-parcel instruction issues profoundly affected the instruction fetch logic design. Other significant results concerned the issue logic, barrel shifter, cache control logic, and branch count.<>