Microprocessor for carrying out a plurality of different microprograms at the same time and method for controlling the microprocessor

• Main Authors: AKAO; YASUSHI, SAWASE; TERUMI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 25.04.1995
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; PHYSICS

The inventive microprocessor includes a first section which runs a microprogram pertinent to a macroinstruction and a second section which runs microprograms that are independent of the macroinstruction, with the first and second sections being operated selectively under time-division control. The microprocessor operates by either selecting one of a plurality of microaddress registers or a macroinstruction register, and by reading out the contents of the selected register for use as an address of a microinstruction memory, carrying out a process based on a microinstruction read out of the microinstruction memory in accordance with the address and generating a next macroinstruction address or next microinstruction address, making access to a macroinstruction memory in accordance with the next macroinstruction address thereby to read out a next macroinstruction, loading the next macroinstruction into the macroinstruction register, selecting one of the microaddress registers and loading the next microinstruction address into the selected microinstruction register, and controlling the selecting operations on a time-division basis.