Control device for directing execution of forced operations in a data processing system

Abstract

In executing and controlling internal data flow for a particular program, it is often necessary to delay execution of an instruction by the insertion of an appropriate number of wait cycles. Thus, it may be necessary to interrupt instruction execution, for example, to insert a given number of wait cycles for channel access to common storage of the data processing system, for reloading a data or instruction buffer, or for a like situation. In such cases, the control unit has to ignore the particular instruction awaiting execution and execute another forced operation instead. An appropriate code is provided for a NO OPERATION instruction, say all bits zero. When a forced operation is to be executed, this code can be generated with fewer logic means at the output of the instruction register. As a result, there are no control signals active at the output of the decoder. The signals indicating forced operations have to be considered by the decoder only if a control signal is to be generated. If the control signals need be grouped for physical reasons, it is possible to determine which of these signals are a function of forced operations. This will negate the need to otherwise distribute these control signals throughout the decoder, thereby reducing and simplifying the wiring required.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.