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Processor design is a subfield of computer science and computer engineering (fabrication) that deals with creating a processor, a key component of computer hardware.. The design process involves choosing an instruction set and a certain execution paradigm (e.g. VLIW or RISC) and results in a microarchitecture, which might be described in e.g. VHDL or Verilog.
It is a tool for modeling the design and behavior of a microprocessor and its components, such as the ALU, cache memory, control unit, and data path, among others. The simulation allows researchers to explore the design space as well as to evaluate the performance and efficiency of novel microarchitecture features.
Microdata's Reality operating system design makes extensive use of this capability. The Xerox Alto workstation used a microcoded design but, unlike many computers, the microcode engine is not hidden from the programmer in a layered design. Applications take advantage of this to accelerate performance.
An instruction set simulator (ISS) is a simulation model, usually coded in a high-level programming language, which mimics the behavior of a mainframe or microprocessor by "reading" instructions and maintaining internal variables which represent the processor's registers.
A cycle-accurate simulator is a computer program that simulates a microarchitecture on a cycle-by-cycle basis. In contrast an instruction set simulator simulates an instruction set architecture usually faster but not cycle-accurate to a specific implementation of this architecture; they are often used when emulating older hardware, where time precision is important for legacy reasons.
The design was complete by 1970, and used a MOS-based chipset as the core CPU. The design was significantly (approximately 20 times) smaller and much more reliable than the mechanical systems it competed against and was used in all of the early Tomcat models. This system contained "a 20-bit, pipelined, parallel multi-microprocessor". The Navy ...
Unlike architectural design, where achieving a specific performance level is the main goal, microarchitectural design pays closer attention to other constraints. Since microarchitecture design decisions directly affect what goes into a system, attention must be paid to issues such as chip area/cost, power consumption, logic complexity, ease of ...
Separate from the stack definition of a MISC architecture, is the MISC architecture being defined by the number of instructions supported. Typically a minimal instruction set computer is viewed as having 32 or fewer instructions, [1] [2] [3] where NOP, RESET, and CPUID type instructions are usually not counted by consensus due to their fundamental nature.