Microprogramming: History and Evolution - Edwardbosworth.com
Microprogramming: History and Evolution - Edwardbosworth.com
Microprogramming: History and Evolution - Edwardbosworth.com
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The Hardwired Control Unit Design Process<br />
In contrast, prototyping a hardwired control unit took quite a bit of effort. The unit was<br />
built from LSI <strong>and</strong> MSI <strong>com</strong>ponents, wired <strong>and</strong> tested. This was very labor intensive <strong>and</strong><br />
costly, since it most of the work had to be done by degreed engineers.<br />
Recall that in the 1970’s there were few tools to aid hardware design. In particular, there<br />
were no programmable gate arrays to allow quick configuration of hardware <strong>and</strong> no<br />
hardware design languages, such as VHDL, for describing <strong>and</strong> testing a design.<br />
Today, a hardwired control unit is as easy to design <strong>and</strong> test as a microprogrammed unit;<br />
it is first described <strong>and</strong> tested in VHDL.<br />
Source: Page 189 from (Murdocca, 2007)
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