MIXER: an expert system for microprogramming

Abstract

Microprogramming is an important technique to implement various functions on VLSI chips, and to adapt computers to application problems; but it is very difficult to generate an optimal and correct microcode, because each microarchitecture has its own peculiarities. This paper describes the effectiveness of an expert system based on a knowledge base for microprogramming. The purpose of the system is to give microprogrammers with a tool to develop microprograms without requiring that they have a deep knowledge of the microarchitecture, and to reduce microarchitecture learning time. The system is called MIXER. MIXER is a microprogram development system having as its knowledge base Texas Instruments' TI990 microarchitecture, and generates a TI990 microcode. This paper also describes the creation of a PASCAL-P machine emulator by applying MIXER.