MVM: A GaAs microprocessor for critical real-time applications

Abstract

The MVM processor is a 16-bit GaAs microprocessor designed for speed-demanding signal processing and controls environments. A number of design trade-offs were made in order to tune up the design for the target workload model (a set of Purdue University benchmarks for signal processing and control). A major goal was to exploit the inherent speed of the technology while coping with problems such as its very limited density of integration, high off-chip speed penalty, and the high cost of implementing large GaAs memory systems. To that end several new and innovative techniques such as vertical migration, direct compilation to microcode, and multiple ALU design, have been exploited. The pipeline hazard control is moved to the compilation phase. Program memory (microcode) and data memory are external to the chip. The memory is two-way interleaved and can be implemented not only in GaAs but in advanced silicon ECL and CMOS technologies with access time under 20 ns. The design takes 21 K transistors, including a seven window dual port register file, and the data path. The system is clocked at 400 MHz. The peak throughput of this uniprocessoy system is 133 MIPS. © 1989.