Control store

A control store is the part of a CPU's control unit that stores the CPU's microprogram. It is usually accessed by a microsequencer. A control store implementation whose contents are unalterable is known as a Read Only Memory (ROM) or Read Only Storage (ROS); one whose contents are alterable is known as a Writable Control Store (WCS). Early control stores were implemented as a diode-array accessed via address decoders, a form of read-only memory. This tradition dates back to the program timing matrix on the MIT Whirlwind, first described in 1947. Modern VLSI processors instead use matrices of field-effect transistors to build the ROM and/or PLA structures used to control the processor as well as its internal sequencer in a microcoded implementation. IBM System/360 used a variety of techniques: CCROS (Card Capacitor Read-Only Storage) on the Model 30, TROS (Transformer Read-Only Storage) on the Model 40, and BCROS (Balanced Capacitor Read-Only Storage) on Models 50, 65 and 67. Some computers were built using "writable microcode" — rather than storing the microcode in ROM or hard-wired logic, the microcode was stored in a RAM called a writable control store or WCS. Such a computer is sometimes called a Writable Instruction Set Computer or WISC. Many of these machines were experimental laboratory prototypes, such as the WISC CPU/16 and the RTX 32P. The original System/360 models had read-only control store, but later System/360, System/370 and successor models loaded part or all of their microprograms from floppy disks or other DASD into a writable control store consisting of ultra-high speed random-access read-write memory. The System/370 architecture included a facility called Initial-Microprogram Load (IML or IMPL) that could be invoked from the console, as part of Power On Reset (POR) or from another processor in a tightly coupled multiprocessor complex. This permitted IBM to easily repair microprogramming defects in the field.

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Related concepts (8)

Microcode

In processor design, microcode serves as an intermediary layer situated between the central processing unit (CPU) hardware and the programmer-visible instruction set architecture of a computer. It consists of a set of hardware-level instructions that implement higher-level machine code instructions or control internal finite-state machine sequencing in many digital processing components. While microcode is utilized in general-purpose CPUs in contemporary desktops, it also functions as a fallback path for scenarios that the faster hardwired control unit is unable to manage.

VAX

VAX (an acronym for Virtual Address eXtension) is a series of computers featuring a 32-bit instruction set architecture (ISA) and virtual memory that was developed and sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the late 20th century. The VAX-11/780, introduced October 25, 1977, was the first of a range of popular and influential computers implementing the VAX ISA. The VAX family was a huge success for DEC–over 100 models were introduced over the lifetime of the design, with the last members arriving in the early 1990s.

Control store