article

Free access

Application of hardware description languages to microprogramming: Method, practice, and limitations

Authors:

Paul J. Drongowski,

Charles W. RoseAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter, Volume 10, Issue 4

Pages 55 - 60

https://doi.org/10.1145/1014188.803012

Published: 18 November 1979 Publication History

Abstract

The use of microprogrammable processors and networks of microcomputers has induced a reconsideration of development tools and methodologies for system design and construction. This article presents the history, structure, and use of a system developed at Case Western Reserve to support the development of these kinds of systems. Other applications of hardware description languages to microprogramming and system development are discussed. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations on the application of hardware description languages to this area as a consequence of faults in the languages themselves.

References

[1]

Abromovici, M., Brauer, M., and Kumar, K., Concurrent Fault Simulation and Functional Level Modeling, Proc. 14th Design Automation Conference, 1977.]]

Digital Library

[2]

Avizienis, A., Architecture of Fault Tolerant Computing Systems, Proc. Intl. Symposium on Fault Tolerant Computing Systems, 1975.]]

[3]

Backus, J., Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style? A Functional Style and Its Algebra of Programs, CACM, Vol. 21, No. 8, August 1978.]]

Digital Library

[4]

Barbacci, M., A Comparison of Register Transfer Languages for Describing Computer and Digital Systems, IEEE Transactions on Computers, February 1975.]]

[5]

Barbacci, M. and Siework, D., Applications of an ISP Compiler in a Design Automation Laboratory, Proc. 1975 Intl. Symposium on Computer Hardware Description Languages and Their Applications, 1975.]]

[6]

Barbacci, M. and Siework D., The C-MU RT-CAD System: An Innovative Approach to Computer- Aided Design, CMU Internal Report, 1975.]]

[7]

Bell, C. G., and Newell, A., The PMS and ISP Descriptive System for Computer Systems, Proc. AFIPS, SJCC, 1970.]]

[8]

Cooper, R., The Distributed Pipeline, IEEE Transactions on Computers, November 1977.]]

[9]

Crocker, S., State Deltas: A Formalism for Representing Segments of Computation, PhD Thesis, Computer Science Department, UCIA, 1977.]]

Digital Library

[10]

Davis, A. L., Data Driven Nets: A Maximally Concurrent, Procedural, Parallel Process Representation for Distributed Control Systems, Univ. of Utah Dept. of Computer Science Report UUCS-78-108, July 1978.]]

[11]

Drongowski, P. J., Fuller, S. H., and Almes, G. T., Emulating the Nova on the PDP-11/40E: A Case Study, IEEE Fall CompCon '75, September 9-11, 1975, Washington D.C.]]

[12]

Drongowski, P. J., N.mPc: An Adaptable Software System to Support the Development of Microprocessor- Based Systems, Andrew R. Jennings Computer Center Report 1177, Case Western Reserve University, 1977.]]

[13]

Drongowski, P. J., ISP' Language Reference Manual with Implementation Notes, Ford Aerospace Technical Report, IEEE Repository No. R78-216, June 1978.]]

[14]

Maxey, G. F., and Organick, E. I., CASL - A Language for Automating the Implementation of Computer Architectures, Proc. of the 5th Symposium on Computer Hardware Description Languages, Palo Alto, California, October, 1979.]]

[15]

Mitre Corp., Secure Unix Kernel B5 Specifications, Bedford, Massachusetts, 1976.]]

[16]

Parker, A., et. al., the C-MU Design Automation System: An Example of Automated Data Path Design, Carnegie-Mellon University Design Research Center Report DRC-18-15-79, May 1979.]]

Digital Library

[17]

Parker, A., and Hafer, L., Automated Synthesis of Digital Hardware, C-MU Design Research Center Report DRC-18-12-79, May 1979.]]

[18]

Parker, A. C., Thomas, D. E., and Crocker, S., ISPS: A Retrospective View, C-MU Design Research Center Report DRC-18-14-79, May 1979.]]

[19]

Parker, A. C., Invited Seminar Speaker, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Utah, June 1979.]]

[20]

Proceedings of the 1976 International Conference on Parallel Processing, IEEE, 1976.]]

[21]

Reddie, S. S., and Feustal, E. A., A Conceptual Framework for Computer Architecture, Computing Surveys, CACM, June 1976.]]

Digital Library

[22]

Rose, C. W., and Schoeffler, J. D., Distributed Intelligence and Input/Output in Data Acquisition Systems, Proc. International Telemetering Conference, Vol. XII, 705-720, September 1976.]]

[23]

Roubine, O., and Robinson, L., SPECIAL Reference Manual, 3rd Edition, SRI International Technical Report CSG-45, January 1977.]]

[24]

Proc. of the 16th Design Automation Conference, Session on N.mPc, ACM SIGDA and IEEE CS, San Diego, California, June 25-27, 1979.]]

[25]

TRW, Corp., Advanced SMITE Technical Report (Interim): Performance Measurement, Extensibility, and Concurrency Study, Defense and Space Systems Group, March 1978.]]

[26]

Wagner, T. J., Verification of Hardware Designs Through Symbolic Manipulation, Proc. Design Automation and Microprocessors, ACM SIGDA and IEEE CS, Palo Alto, California]]

Digital Library

Cited By

Gieser J(1982)On Horizontally Microprogrammed Microarchitecture Description TechniquesIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.1982.2357398:5(513-525)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1982
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.1982.235739
Kornerup P(1980)Firmware Development Systems, a SurveyFirmware Engineering10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_5(124-137)Online publication date: 1980
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_5
Giloi WGueth R(1980)Spezifikation von FirmwareFirmware Engineering10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_4(93-123)Online publication date: 1980
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_4
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Application of hardware description languages to microprogramming: Method, practice, and limitations

Recommendations

Application of hardware description languages to microprogramming: Method, practice, and limitations
MICRO 12: Proceedings of the 12th annual workshop on Microprogramming

The use of microprogrammable processors and networks of microcomputers has induced a reconsideration of development tools and methodologies for system design and construction. This article presents the history, structure, and use of a system developed ...
Hardware Description Languages: Voices from the Tower of Babel*

A hardware description language can be used to describe the logic gates, the sequential machines, and the functional modules, along with their interconnection and their control, in a digital system. In a general sense, Boolean equations, logic diagrams, ...
Programmimg languages for hardware description
DAC '83: Proceedings of the 20th Design Automation Conference

This paper describes work done as part of a design automation system for gate arrays. The system provides no hard ware description language and circuits are described in the same language in which the system is implemented, Modula-2. We claim that ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter

ACM SIGMICRO Newsletter Volume 10, Issue 4

Dec. 1979

113 pages

ISSN:1050-916X

DOI:10.1145/1014188

Issue’s Table of Contents

MICRO 12: Proceedings of the 12th annual workshop on Microprogramming
November 1979
113 pages
Chairmen:
Thomas Wesselkamper,
Gearold Johnson,
Richard A. Belgard,
Mary Flinn

Copyright © 1979 Authors.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 18 November 1979

Published in SIGMICRO Volume 10, Issue 4

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

4
Total Citations
View Citations
305
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)62
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)13

Reflects downloads up to 20 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Gieser J(1982)On Horizontally Microprogrammed Microarchitecture Description TechniquesIEEE Transactions on Software Engineering10.1109/TSE.1982.2357398:5(513-525)Online publication date: 1-Sep-1982
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/TSE.1982.235739
Kornerup P(1980)Firmware Development Systems, a SurveyFirmware Engineering10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_5(124-137)Online publication date: 1980
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_5
Giloi WGueth R(1980)Spezifikation von FirmwareFirmware Engineering10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_4(93-123)Online publication date: 1980
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_4
Berg HGüth R(1980)Software Engineering — Firmware EngineeringFirmware Engineering10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_3(72-92)Online publication date: 1980
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-67774-8_3

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents