Operational Details
Bit slice processors usually consist of an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) of 1, 2, 4 or 8 bits and control lines (including carry or overflow signals that are internal to the processor in non-bitsliced designs).
For example, two 4-bit ALUs could be arranged side by side, with control lines between them, to form an 8-bit CPU, with four slices a 16-bit CPU can be built, and it takes 8 four bit slices for a 32-bit word CPU (so the designer can add as many slices as required to manipulate increasingly longer word lengths).
A microsequencer or Control ROM would be used to execute logic to provide data and control signals to regulate function of the component ALUs. Examples of bit-slice microprocessor modules can be seen in the Intel 3000 family, the AMD Am2900 family, the National Semiconductor IMP-16 and IMP-8 family, and the 74181.
Read more about this topic: Bit Slicing
Famous quotes containing the word details:
“Patience is a most necessary qualification for business; many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request. One must seem to hear the unreasonable demands of the petulant, unmoved, and the tedious details of the dull, untired. That is the least price that a man must pay for a high station.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)