Industrial applications of microcomputers

History rhc colloquium mas distinguished by the diversity 01’ approach to microprocessor system development propounded by the four contributors. Mr. ~orn.rtem described the history of micro development ail&, spiced wirh many interesting facts and of trends, for example the almost linear growth zkcrage program size over the years, the fact that 3j% of deveiopm~~ time is spent in ted,ting and maintenance and that 50’5b of users employed a high-le\‘el language. (The figures, however, were ~ont~ed by later speakers.) He ended the presentation by Listing the advantages of dedicated dcvelopmcnr tooli \uch as the Intel MDS range and que\tloning the ability of “univer5al” alternatives II> provide support for net devices within a reason:rhle rime+cale. This provided an interesting
K. Bibhop, oi the British Post Office, described e nlachine independent, or uni~crsal, development >>,tern capable of supporting a large range of gencrnl rl-ti~r~processt,rs. The s’stem can support four IU hi-\ users. some of whom will be engaged in EL’L)P’ aiI orogram develcpment whilst others are dcbtqgi~~g?. Modular hardware and software was rhc thcmr together with a standard user interface \chicil needs to be learned once only. The system ~uppr~t\ a standard high-ievel language called C‘or~tlm \\hich 1, microprocessor independent and II r!lii\.ni\e
channels

sbi,rultaneousiy,

was not demon-

Approach The final contributor, Mr. hleachin of DM England Partners, had yet ano.her approach to system development. This was Microsim, a software package capable of intcrprcfmg micro assembly language, editing, convcnrianal assembly, link loading and simulating. The package normally resides on a general software development utility and programs once developed are downIoadcd 15 the target micro for final debugging, passibly using a logic analyser. In a very provocative, prescntation, Mr. Meachin decried the use of high-level languages for most applications and pointed out that the use of cocventional microprocessor development systems unnecessarily tied the hardware to the software and the user to a specific manufacturer. Lively Such contentious statements naturally led to some very lively, but inconclusive, discussion. There are many different approaches to the development of microprocessor systems, all of which have advantages not supplied by the others and some drawbacks. Which you choose is determined to a large extent by your budget and beyond that by many conflicting influences -- including personal preference. Mr.

R.E.

Waliers

Research

I,. lI,q:i~\\, I)/’ CihllS~l described the development i.tii!itti.> ~n~Iudccl in the design of CYBX-M, a riitilr~itlic.roproi.rssol system. The muLtimicro i:n\ ironrnent ii. of course, significantly more difirvuli io monitor than that of a conventional %~:L$!c171oc‘c>\or. CYBA-M’s IS working processors c tn DC monitor-cd via special hardware and a comitlttnil son\ole a separate general-purpose comput~r. Con\rntional debugging facilities are proi i&d by the command console with additional multips+zessor functions, such as stop all proseniors when a certain event occurs. Dr. Dagless fated that the CYBA-M system could, fol c’\:~rirplc. play the Welsh national anthem on four

but this

strated.

British

Department

Telecom

Martlesham tpswich.

Resear!:h

Heath England

lReproduced

with

permission

flom

Industrial Applications computers

‘IEE

News’.)

of Micro-

Based on citations from the Engineering Index data base, G.E. Habercom has compiled a bibliography on applications of microcomputers used to expedite industrial processes. Such diversified industries as pulp mills, rubber processing industry, chemical

rnelai b.almL%xwz

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Micro-13 The

13th

Annual

Microprograms

was hefd from November Coiorado

Springs,

workshop

Colorado,

is sponsored

the Technical The

Sessions,

Sigmi~ra

and

on ~~~ropro~ram~~~~

of

consisted

Tutorial,

an

of

Opening

and 3 Informal

working

Sessions,

At the Microprogramming Equipment

intrtsducrion

MACRO

levels,

microinstructions. as

Equipment

was

tutorial

and

csv*~nq

wer~~%

wersus (IBM,

vertical

I

U.S.A

micraprogramm& ttich!r~un!

J. who

a rnul?~~

Johnson

U.S.A.). was

the

!nsfruc,

MACHINE

by W.

of an LSI

discussed

G,+u&z?J

(i&ptal

The

Mick

final

LA&am&

presented

the

bit-slice

cornpun~ns

mictoprcgram

softwsra

systems,

feature

the lectures Sessions

it”

F gave an

in executing

U.S.A.1

devices

a. A

implementation

covered

Devices,

development We

of

Corporation.

individual

U.S

Tredennick use

encountered

at the

family

horizontal

a m&chine

chip design speaker

versus

and the

trade-off

Micro

Formai

nrganizacion.

MICRO N.

discussed

control

TutariaE,

Corpcsrat~2n.

of mscbtna

tion set design,

The

4

alli arranged

to Anicroprogramrri~tig,

concepts

then

a Mrcrupragram

Session,

meetings.

(Digital basic

This ennciaf

Society.

Workshop

ming

We>r%&o~ 3, X%B. ;~j

U.S.A.

by ACM’s

Committee

the IEEE Computer

VJ

3@-Recem&

below delivered

a synopsis at the

of a selection

Formal

and

of

Informal

of MICRO-13.

Formal Session in Verific,Mon, Microcode

I: Prospects for Advanced Tools Optimization and Generation nf

the microcode for Data the development 01 ~;cr>cral’< ne\v 32 bit processor, the ECLIPSE ~~Y/SDOO. Each of the tools and the design philosophies of using a microcoded Independent Dinynnstic instruction Set for f he development, n~nnufxturir~g and field supporf of this data procexsing system was demonstrated by P. Reiify, E. and S. Srmdalrer (Data General S/?U/lUhtl, Corporation, U.S.A.). J.A. Fitlrcdr (Yale University, U.S.A.) presented a \chen.e by \%hich multiway microprogram jumps ma)- bc made to any of 2” next possible micromlrtruction\ ai a funcrion of any selection of II > 1 loglcaiiy independent tests. An efficient method of binding mi(:roin5trucIionb to memory locations allows this ti, be done ot \‘cry Iov cost, in terms of both \peed :lnd bar-dware. l*‘urnrai Se&on 111: Microprogrammable Hardware Unlvsrsity, Japan) deS. Ti~r~rro ci II/. (liyoto ~rrhcd the arl”~irecture-tr!ilor-ability of QA-1, a rcbcsrch-orisntrd computer, to different classes of cmulatiot,s for existing machines such as the PDPIl. 40 nrrd the EIITAC-LO, and for high-level iiiir::tu@c machii~es such as BASIC and PASCAL nra~hmr~. On the basis sf these evaluations of Q-X-1, rh+ turther proposed it new architecture tar rhc ntsi generation computer, QA-2.

*4 it~cr-tliicruprogrunlrrlable computer has been dc\ cl<>!~~l fur LLX as a building block in generalIX&Ipt~ and dedioa~ed computer systems. in. hrliir:r C~‘Ioi. (Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., I’.S.;X.) discussed the design goals and strategies i*lrislr determined the machine architecture and c&o ya\e an overview of the architecture and bard\< are organization.

By taking advantage of informarion redundancy control ROMs for microand MOS structures, programmed microprocessors cart be considerably Compressed ROM reduced. The Control (CCROM) method for reducing control ROMs was descri.bed by K.,M. Gutrag (Texas Instruments U.S.A.) through P sitnplc cxamplc Incorporated, that compares the fully horizontal itpproach, lhc normal partially encoded approach, and [he CCRlOM approach. integrated circuits having complexity levels approaching one million devices per chip (VLSI) present significant problems in the coit of design and use. N.G. Cragon (Texas Instruments Incorporated, U.S.A.) presented cost moiels for two approaches which demonstrate tha: the Programmable System Component (PSC) approach is the only viable path in VLSI. R.K. Be/f et ul. (Sperry Univac, U.S.A.) reported on the functiona! evaluation of the three l&bit microprocessors: the Intel 8096, the Zilog 28000, and the Motorola MC68000. Conclusions and recommendationsweremadeappficabletoterminals and similar Sperry Univac products. Formal Session IV: Languages ro Support Microprogramming M. Sinr (Mathematisch Centrum, Holland) surveyed the current state of design and implementation of high level microprogramming languages. A number of important design issues was formulated, four languages were considered in detail, and remarks on six other languages were given. The basic ideas in extending a machine-oriented microprogramming language into a system implementation language through data and control abstraction were described by H. Kurki-Suonio and J. Heiniinen (University of Tampere, Finland). The approach allows an extremely primitive base language to be bootstrapped to a high level by a type definition mechanism where the operations of the types may be microprogrammed. Informal Session 1 1Y.J. !dey?rs @ata General Corporation, U.S.A.) described the design of a microcode link editor (microbinder) that supports 3, variety of different micromachines. The microbinder resolves symbolic

label reference\ v,ith and h~tt~cen 1rpxt~~rr3~ asaembIed mimxodc atnrdulrs. itilaxrrrc\ +w $or each modttlc in controi sore, it’icl e’611::lititi’i% :ir+ contrffl store Iosd image and supporting tabic~. H.G. &km, Jr.
a?id c.

IJ.S.A.1

gave a full description

compiler

for

/‘u,-k@?’ (!.jfIiWj”\il~

3 rninicon;purcr

of ~‘ochc~~c’~.

of a true mirrucodc ~hicb

tranrlarc5

ark

algebraic language directly into c%+::utahk rnicrirex~co&w opirnkcode. The compiler pcrforrm tion and produces code \tbieh t$ :I .1 unod w::!promise

between

lnfcmmil

spsed and G/l:

Session H

(NANODA~FA d orp”r3rinn. U.S.A.) presented a software system \bhn~ input is a description of a highly paralfel rhc rk~ralig) microprogrammablr machine as refkcacd in the organization of the machine’s “word” and a set oi user-specified statement “pattern\‘* defining ihe microprogramming language. Some of the engineering decisions that \&erc made in the attempt to make IBhl’s 3341 Pro~e5wr a high-performing yet few cost processor we:e examined by J.R. Klernsfeibw flBit1 Corporation. U.S.A.). These decisions Include warching for. or developing, algorithm\ that make the h.w uw <>t hardware propcttits. G.R.

The the

Bergfusr

Proceedings of MICRO-13 IEEE Computer Society

Number

80

CH

Number 520800). 0194.1895. Price:

1599-O)

and

are avakbk from (IEEE Cataiog:ie the

ACM

IOrdsr

1980. xv+192 pages. ISSX: US$12 (members). USS16 (non-

members). ____

Dutch Three

..

_~_.^ .

Government Announces Micro-Electronics Centers

The Dutch Minister for Science Policy -eccntly stated in Parliament that the Ciovcrnrnsnt has decided to establish three centers for micro-electronics, instead of one as was argued by the Rathenau-Commission in 1979 (see Euromicro Journal, Vol. 6, Nr. 2 (1980), page 127).