A microprogrammed machine architecture for efficient matrix multiplication

Abstract

In the modern world of control and estimation theory, matrix multiplications are ubiquitous. Minicomputers designed as general purpose machines do not have instruction sets designed to efficiently implement these multiplications. A microprogrammable machine may be capable of efficient matrix multiplications if it has the proper architecture. A Hewlett-Packard HP-2100 minicomputer was used to investigate architectural and efficiency problems. Algorithms were developed to calculate execution times for any n, m, and T where n and m refer to the matrix dimensions and T is the basic machine instruction time. The execution times for various size matrix operations indicated savings of up to 80% for microcoded operations.